The temperature the morning I wrote this column was 30 degrees and the three hummingbird feeders I still have out were partially frozen. To most people, it seems strange to expect to see a hummingbird when it’s almost Thanksgiving, but it happens more often than you’d think.

By early October almost all the ruby-throated hummingbirds are gone from this part of the country. However, around this time each year vagrant western species often show up. And in this past week three have been discovered in Pennsylvania.

Back when I started birding more than 40 years ago, no one ever thought any hummingbirds other than ruby-throats would be seen east of the Rocky Mountains. But all that changed due in large part to Nancy Newfield in Louisiana finding a rufous hummingbird on her property. And th

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