Hello all, This year, I'm maintaining feeders at 7 different locations around the town of Delaware until temperatures are steadily freezing. It's a scheme in an attempt to better understand vagrant hummingbird patterns, and attract a RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD, or otherwise! I'm mapping where all my feeders are located on Google maps, at this link: http://tinyurl.com/27qs4k7 Or if that doesn't work: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&msid=1115419817379304 63917.0004907b9a89bc076aefc&ll=40.014994,-82.710571&spn=2.355918,4.938354&z= 8 This is a plea to join me in this movement! It would mean the world to me to get as many people as possible on board. Here's all you have to do: 1. Maintain your feeders for as long as you can. 2. Go to the map above, and add a location of a known maintained feeder by following the instructions. Remember, it doesn't have to be your own house, just if you know of a maintained feeder somewhere. If for some reason you're unable to do this, you can email me your location so I can add it. 3. Report your vagrant hummingbirds! This is an effort to better understand the pattern of vagrant hummingbirds in the fall. This effort has the potential to give EXTRAORDINARY data that ornithologists can use to assess what types of locations, if any, hummingbirds select when they end up in Ohio. Do they stick to rivers? Open areas? etc. When do they mostly arrive? What percentage of feeders in Ohio will get a vagrant hummer? The possibilities are endless. While we can start to answer some of these questions with previous records, a scientific effort is needed. Also, it'd be awesome to record more winter hummingbirds and more species! We know they're out there!! Here is Ohio's current list of vagrant hummingbirds: Anna's Hummingbird Green Violetear Allen's Hummingbird (if accepted) Rufous Hummingbird Calliope Hummingbird Here are other species recorded in eastern North America, some with many records: Black-chinned Hummingbird Buff-bellied Hummingbird Broad-billed Hummingbird Green-breasted Mango Broad-tailed Hummingbird Violet-crowned Hummingbird Blue-throated Hummingbird (Am I missing any?) Again, we know they're out there- it's just a matter of stopping them at your house! I'm not sure how this project will turn out, but it would mean the world to me if you could just add your location of a known maintained feeder. Thanks, and good birding! Sean --- Sean Williams, '11 Undergraduate of Ornithology of Dr. Jed Burtt Ohio Wesleyan University HWCC 724 Delaware, OH 43015 617-470-4094 ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]