[Pollinator] Hummingbirds Pollinating in Costa Rica

[research at hiltonpond.org]

Today, as spring migrant Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are returning to the Carolinas, I’m already thinking about their fall departure and our upcoming Operation RubyThroat expedition to Costa Rica in November. What could be more fun that to follow “our" hummers to their wintering grounds in the Neotropics? 

Our next citizen science trip will be to Costa Rica’s Caribbean slope where we’ll be staying at a new (air conditioned!) lodge at Paraíso. From there we’ll go out each morning to the Orosi Valley at Ujarrás, where we’ll observe, capture, and band Ruby-throated Hummingbirds feeding on nectar-rich Chayote blossoms. Afternoons will be devoted to field trips to nearby nature and cultural sites, with plenty of time for photography of tropical flora and fauna. Interestingly, hummingbirds appear to be the primary pollinators of Chayote, an economically and agriculturally important native squash. 

This will be our 27th Operation RubyThroat expedition to Central America, where we’ve banded more than 1,350 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, plus scores of other Neotropical migrant warblers, flycatchers, orioles, and tanagers. We also catch many species of colorful resident non-migrant birds we do not band but get to examine and photograph up-close. (Think motmots, manakins, grassquits, etc.)

More than 250 people are alumni of our Operation RubyThroat trips, and more than a quarter of those have been on more than one expedition. (One couple has been six times!) With this satisfaction rate we’re sure you will enjoy participating in this exciting and scientifically important activity scheduled for 12-20 November 2016.

For more information, please visit our full itinerary on the Web site for Holbrook Travel, which handles logistics for all our trips. It’s at http://www.holbrooktravel.com/where-we-travel/americas/costa-rica/costa-rica-operation-rubythroat-dr-bill-hilton <http://www.holbrooktravel.com/where-we-travel/americas/costa-rica/costa-rica-operation-rubythroat-dr-bill-hilton>

Hope to see you in Costa Rica this fall for some . . .

. . . Happy (Neotropical) Hummingbird Watching!

BILL

Please "Like" our new Facebook pages at http://www.facebook.com/HiltonPond <http://www.facebook.com/HiltonPond> for timely updates on nature topics,
and for info about hummingbirds at http://www.facebook.com/rubythroats <http://www.facebook.com/rubythroats>

Follow us on Twitter @hiltonpond
=========

RESEARCH PROGRAM
℅ BILL HILTON JR., D.Sci.
Executive Director
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA
office & cell (803) 684-5852

Please visit our web sites (courtesy of Comporium.net <http://comporium.net/>):
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History at http://www.hiltonpond.org <http://www.hiltonpond.org/> 
"Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project" at http://www.rubythroat.org <http://www.rubythroat.org/>

==================

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20160412/1f788907/attachment.html>