As I write this in late March, 2004, Ruby-throats are arriving  in the Gulf Coast states, having made their perilous journey over water from Mexico. The earliest arrivals, mostly males, are just reaching northern Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas. You can track their progress north by consulting the "first sightings" reported on Lanny Chambers' website at www.hummingbirds.net . You can see their movement into the New England states on the NE Hummers Spring Map 2004. To see the phases of their movement into New England last year, click on   NE Hummers Spring Map 2003.  A look at what has been the norm in New England states over the past seven years will help put this year in perspective.

Ruby-throats begin to arrive in New England in mid-April, often appearing at almost the same time in Connecticut, Rhode Island and the Massachusetts Cape and Islands (see table below). Many migrating hummers are probably concentrated in the coastal flyway; many also probably move north up the Connecticut River valley. A few hardy members of the "advance guard", usually males,  reach coastal New Hampshire and southern Maine, and lowland Vermont, during April (see the 2003 map, for example), but most hummers reach those states during the first week of May. They finally arrive in the higher elevations of northern New England by mid-May. Other waves of hummers follow, continuing throughout May.

It is interesting that the data in the table below suggest that arrivals have been getting earlier in some areas over the past five years, although there may also simply be more observers reporting, and watching more carefully.  Or the explanation may lie in wind, temperature and other weather factors, including long-term climate change. Further research is needed on this question.

EARLIEST SIGHTINGS OF RUBY-THROATS, 2003 - 1997

Sources: www.hummingbirds.net  courtesy of Lanny Chambers; and *MassBird listserve archives, courtesy of Marj Rines

Sharon Stichter
March 22,  2004

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