THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 2, 1996 TAG: 9601020136
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
A rufous hummingbird of western America that ought to be wintering in southern Mexico is hanging out instead at Virginia Beach in dense shrubs of a Russian olive at the Oceanfront end of 83rd Street.
Hanging out within sight of the thumb-sized bird, but keeping a respectful distance so as not to spook him, are all varieties of birdwatchers, their binoculars fixed to their eyes, as if glued, to catch a glimpse of the rarity and add his name to their life lists.
Bob Anderson reported the rufous eminence on the bird-alert hot line, which will set off a flock of birdwatchers migrating this way from the farthermost reaches of Virginia.
These human migrants heading here are nearly as populous as Canadian tourists who fleck the summer sands.
Birdwatchers on the wing constitute no small boost to the region's economy as they alight to buy gas, soda pop and peanut-butter crackers at convenience stores.
Some of the birdwatchers are nearly as exotic as the birds they watch. It would be fully as rewarding, if one could do so discreetly, to watch the birdwatchers as it is to watch the birds.
The rufous hummingbird is one of the most brilliant of the feathered tribe. Here is how Arthur Cleveland Bent, the Boswell of the Smithsonian's Life Histories of birds, describes the flare of color at the hummer's throat:
``The brilliant scarlet of the rufous hummer's gorget, which often glows like burnished gold, puts it in the front rank as a gleaming gem, a feathered ball of fire.''
He also mentions the glittering coppery sheen, or rufous, on the bird's upper parts and the pale rufous of the under parts except for the white chest.
Before you set off to view this phenomenon, understand that it is an immature bird lacking the brilliance of the adult. Often when rare birds appear here they have been blown off course by storms or are immature and have lost their way, said Helen Irving.
The hummer at the beach popped up on the Christmas bird count during which humans turn out in all kinds of weather to count birds and compare the totals to previous years, a check of whether populations are waxing or waning.
Our visitor found Russian olive bushes in profuse white blooms when little else is flowering this severe winter.
In spring and summer, hummingbirds are drawn to feeders and flowers of red hue. In this weather white will do.
Eleanor Marshall, one of the first to sight him, notes that he works his way among the blooms but for minutes at a time will perch on a tall stalk while watchers admire him.
We wish him well, as we do all visitors, and hope for a warming trend in which he may bask. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Rufous hummingbird
by CNB