First Annual Georgia Hummingbird Festival

6211 Saturday, August 13, 2005 10:00am-4:00pm at Gaither”s Plantation near Mansfield. I had only two complaints about this entire event. First, it was in a really out-in-the-boonies place. We had to drive on a gravel road for about a mile. Suck. Second, it was really really hot. Georgia in August isn”t the most appealing of times. Both, however, I can understand. Hummingbirds are begining to mirgrate south from Canada now, so you”ll see more of them in August and September. Also, in order to get big numbers of birds, you have to be out-in-the-boonies. The Georgia Hummer Study Group put the festival on, so Presdident Rusty Trump was there banding. Rusty is one of only two licensed hummingbird banders in the state. I”d been e-mailing him back and forth about what I thought to be a black-chinned female at one of my feeders (turned out to be a ruby-throat). He”d banded about 19 birds when we got there at 11:00. We wandered around the festival for a while before finally finding the garden they were trapping the birds in. There were literaly hundreds of hummingbirds in that garden. Next to the garden, they had a table set up for banding. Rusty was just finishing up an immature female. I hurried and wrote my name on two slips of paer for the releaser drawings, then grabbed my camera and got a few photos of her back. Cheryl drew my name out of the jar for that very release, so I was thrilled. There were people crowded all around me, watcing with mouths hanging open. It was awesome. He just set the bird in my hand, and she just sat there for about 30 seconds before flying off. There was a collective “Ahh!” from the people crowded around, then he went back for another bird to band. The next one was an adult male with a much darker emerald green back. Each bird he banded, Rusty would show to the audience up close before releasing. He had to rush a few to release because he had several waiting in bags. He”d get one out, measure it”s tail, wings, bill and body, check for fat stores, then weigh it wrapped in a footie, give it a drink, show it to the audience, answer questions, then let someone release it. The birds were all in captivity for less than 10 minutes, even when they had to wait in bags. The whole day was great. They took a break from banding for a while, so John and I got somehting to eat. We hung around until my name was called again. I was hoping to get a female and a male, and this one was a male! He measured it, weighed it, and showed it to the audience. The bird was actually a recapture from the previous year, and he was done with being handled. He stayed in my hand for less than a second, too fast for any photos without Rusty”s hand around him. After that, we left. I”d been working on a migrane for half the day, and John was working on a sunburn. Whee for hummingbirds! I even told Rusty who I was (from e-mailing him), and he asked “Are you from Athens?” I told him yes, and he remembered me. Forgive a little geekery here. 🙂 For all of the photos, go Here