Brooksville area has hummers in the winter as well. That is one of the towns that Fred Bassett stops in to band when he is headed to Lakeland. That is usually in Jan. or Feb. I have had a female that has been around now for a couple of weeks. Throughout the winter, I have had numerous birds - they seem to hang for a week or so then would leave, often just after another would arrive. I had at least 3 immature Rufous and my adult female visited but didn't stay. I use Journey North to post my hummers. I like that you can use the map and the sighting page where you can give description of what you saw. If you go to www.learner.org it will get you there. Check it out, there is a picture of one of my birds on the discussion page.(an immature male Ruby that Fred banded in Jan.) I have posted my winter sightings there but will wait till a different bird shows up to post for "First Sighting". Joe, here in Lakeland had 6 adult males, a female, an immature male , all Ruby-throated and an immature Black-chinned. stay the winter with him. Last time I spoke with him, he still had 4 males and the female. he thought he had a migrating male show up that day. Tom, do you use Steve Backes floridahummingbird site? It is quite good for a forum to chat back and forth with others and it keeps us posted about when people start seeing birds in migration locally. The Great Backyard Bird Count was a couple weekends ago. Lakeland had the most hummers reported in the state, although, we know that the Pandhandle was having a record number of them being banded earlier this winter.

Kristen - you contributed for me but I can include some data from previous years: 2006 Zone 7, Phila., PA (in the city but on the border line of Montco) Closest first on map = 4/9/06 My first = 4/29/06 (same as this year) Days diff = 20 -------------------------- 2005 Zone 7, Phila., PA (in the city but on the border line of Montco) Closest first on map = 4/7/05 My first = 6/5/05 Days diff = 59 My very first hummer experience was back in 2004 during fall migration season and I don't have the exact date handy of that (my very first hummer sighting ever), but it was some time in mid-August 2004. The first sighting in the area that year was 4/7/04. In general, the males tend to come earlier and in 2005, I only had a returning female, who showed up on 6/5/05. But once I got my first 2 juvie males of 2005 and they got a taste of my spot, one of them returned the next year on 4/29/06. The mom returned later on 5/10/06. There were 4 juvie males and at least 3 adult females that summer and one of the 2006 juvie males showed up this year on 4/29/07. One of the females appeared on 5/10/07.

yea!!! I've seen a lot of bird activity in my rose arbor. Do they start nest building this early? I've still got over a foot of snow cover. I may miss my pruning window.

I also had my first robin sighting this morning as I was going out the door. They were all over my front yard... such a cheery sight to see! ....NW FL