March 11, 2018
Pacific Northwest
My observations are incomplete and only go back a couple of decades, but based on what I have seen in my backyard, the Rufous hummingbirds are arriving for the summer breeding season earlier these days, in general, than they were in the 1990s.
The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge.
We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
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While I’ve always been a nature-lover, I’m a latecomer to phenology and documentation. The Backyard Science group here at DK has been a great way to report observations regularly and to compare what I see to what folks are reporting from other regions — which makes it all that much more interesting! So, I have good data back to 2013, but before that it’s sketchy; fortunately the return of Rufous interested me enough in the ‘90s to note it in my work planbooks, which I kept. I’m missing 7 years of data :/ but with the rest, I have constructed a graph showing arrival dates.
While there are variations from one year to the next, the red line shows the general trend: earlier.
Usually the Rufous hummers arrive around the same time as the Redflowering currant and Salmonberry flowers emerge. This year those wildflowers are a bit late. We had a cooler than usual February this year which may account for that.
In general, temperatures in the Pacific Northwest are increasing, due to global climate change. The effects on flora and wildlife have been difficult to identify, teasing general trends out of the noise of short term variation. But if the Rufouses are spending more time in the Northwest for breeding, I have to wonder about the flowering times of their food sources, especially early in the season. So far, I haven’t seen a general trend toward earlier flowering; variations seem to correlate with given winter/spring weather.
Global warming’s effects on nature are something of an unpredictable crap shoot. The weather extremes caused by destabilizing the atmosphere add to the confusion. We watch and wait, while wildlife feels their way through the changes, some more successfully than others.
I hope the Rufouses do ok. They are remarkable gorgeous little dynamos I look forward to seeing each spring.
Bucket’s open for your nature observations. Is it spring yet where you are?
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