The Chuparosa Challenge-A Crowning Achievement

During the last challenges, I spoke about idenityfing female hummingbirds and before that I wrote about the Magnificent hummer.  So, I thought I'd recap with closer Magnificent hummer shots that I was able to snap off at Ramsey Canyon.  Again, I was on the hunt to find a new hummer to add to my hummingbird list in North America. 

Magnificent Hummer

The Magnificent Hummer is everyone's favorite.  It's larger and much more colorful than the rest of the crew.  Well that's not true.  They all are pretty cool birds but this one strikes a chord with the birder audience.  If you head to the canyon areas this time of year, your chances for spotting this colorful number is pretty good.  So let me tell you about my experience for the day and introduce you to a new member that I can check off my list.  It sounds so cold.  Let me restate.  This is for my photo journal and one that I hope to see more of during the monsoon season:)

I really take all of our birds here for granted.  When I travel to other areas, I am expecting to see these little guys flying around all over.  And I miss their sounds. Cheep  cheep and VROOOM! past your head.  One of the things you may or may not like about birding are of course the people.  Some just go to look at birds and chat.  Some just want you to shut up and watch the birds.  I'm one of those who can do both.  The nice thing with hummingbird observation is that they'll come and feed while you're chatting.  The issue?  You may not be paying attention to capture them before they zoom off.  And this was my own personal challenge for the day.  So are you ready???  Here is our new member to add to our hummingbird family......The Violet-crowned Hummingbird!!!

This beauty is a rare find.  It reminds me of a dolphin with wings because of the very white gorget/frontal area.  It's also one of the easiest to identify of the species in both the male and female form.  Some of you may be surprised but I've actually seen this hummer here in midtown Tucson at our El Presidio gardens!!  Of course they were here only for the monsoon season in July and August.  It was unusual to see them and I remember them because of their white white front.  It wasn't our typical Anna, Costa's, or Black Chinned sightings. So I began to research and was introduced to this species several years ago when this blog first began. 

This particular hummer is really cool at hovering.  Thankfully I was able to spot him during my conversation with an Indiana woman.  She was so excited to see so many wonderful hummers and all of them were new for her.  So we spoke and I helped her identify them as they came to the feeders.  It was sad really because she only had so much time and had just discovered Ramsey Canyon.  Her husband was the Downer Debbie as he dragged her off to church.  He sat there bored out of his mind and reminded her that she had ten minutes left.  She had asked a question which was something like, "Can we come back here again?" No. "Is there any way?"  No.  Okay now.....church vs hummingbird viewing?  That's a no brainer for me.  Hummingbirds all the way!  If you believe, isn't God all around us? So aren't you kinda in church anyway?  Just saying.  Well he dragged her off and I felt bad for her.  I have a suspicion that if he hadn't been around, she would have played hooky with us.  Maybe he saw me as the Devil.  Speaking of the Devil, I am still searching for that elusive Lucifer!!!!!

The one thing that the lady from Indiana said as she watched the hummer show was how much diversity there was around the feeders here.  And then she said the line that many say from outside of Arizona. You know the one:) "All we have there are those Ruby Throated Hummingbirds."  And I replied, "At least you have those hummers in your area.  We don't have them here:)" I'll speak more about this in the upcoming weeks.  The Ruby Throated Hummer was not as easy a find as I thought when we were home in Wisconsin.  They have certain requirements:) But more on that later...

I continue shooting the hummers as they go to the feeders because I never know who will show up.  There was a report of the Plain Capped Starthroat in the area and at first, I thought I may have captured this hummer as well, but alas.....no.  I am conflicted.  There is a place where I know I'll find the bird but the owners are unusual and crazy and they use language I don't approve.  I will break down and try the place out though just to give you my perspective.  If I don't come back alive, you'll know why:)  Okay but back to this pic above.  If you look at the throat, you notice a patch of pink....or something.

Turns out this is a Female Anna's hummer.  On the next Chuparosa challenge, I'll speak about feeders, disagreeing with my mother:), and other interesting things.  My final post on Ramsey Canyon will be tomorrow.  I hope you enjoy it as it was the real gem of our visit.  And like always, more tomorrow.....