love is in the air

We have been having the nicest weather in January here in Oregon for what I can remember. There have been week-long stretches of mild and dry days and unusual warm nights which is very atypical of the Pacific Northwest.

I have been taking advantage of the godsend weather in taking many daily walks. For the first time I realize even in what we consider the death of winter is the rejuvenation of live all around us. There are the calls from the Oregon frogs Pacific tree frogs - I am so thrilled with their recent return to my neighborhood. I also beginning to hear the return of the chickadees, as well as the duck formations flying overhead.

pacific tree frogs also are in courtship

I have been out in my yard and I now know these loud chirp which I used to assume uttered by a song bird until I came across a Nature program about the Anna's hummingbirds. Still, I thought to myself, strange! Why on earth am I haring the courtship of the male Anna's hummingbirds at this time of the year. I begun to pay more attention and sure enough it is unmistakably the loud chirp made by a male Anna's in his daredevil dive (exceeds 50 mph) and pull a 10g nose-up at the bottom of the dive.

Capturing this amazing aerial maneuver with common consumer camera is next to impossible due to the diminutive size of the bird and their extreme high speed. Even with the right equipment that requires carefully planning and a lot of patience.

So what on earth are the hummingbirds courting in January? Comes to think of it it make a lot of sense. Courtships in January would give the necessary time for the female to develop the eggs in the body and when early spring comes they would build the nest for her to lay the precious tiny eggs (typically 2).

There used to be very little reliable information about Anna's hummingbird. I used to feel uncomfortable in putting nectar feeders for them in through the winter month for the fear of disrupting their southern migration. After observing them a few years I concluded many do not leave Oregon in the winter. Today I did a search on this subject again and sure enough Wikipedia now has good information about them. Oregon and Southern Washington are their breeding grounds.

breeding and winter range (in green) of Anna's hummingbirds

a female perching on a tree limb while a male performing daredevil courtship dive - i was unable to capture the male's high speed dive

 zoomed in of the above photo and you can barely see the little female

 I have yet to see the tiny nest they build. There are a lot of tall trees in my neighborhood and I would expect them to build the out on a thin limb to avoid predating mammals like squirrels.

anna's hummingbird each has its favorite perching spots - they tends to prefer being high up and not cover by canopy so they can be on the lookout of dangers from all directions