I hesitated as to whether I should "spill the beans" on this or not, but Nancy specifically said I could post something once she'd left, and I've been excited for her about this for quite some time.
(Quick background for some of you new folk: Nancy Newfield, who is one of the forum's regular contributors, is the senior-most hummingbird bander in the United States, and a widely-known researcher on hummingbirds, particularly the phenomenon of western and southwestern hummingbirds wintering in the southeastern states. One of her five books, "Hummingbird Gardens", is an excellent resource for gardening for hummingbirds in various regions of the country and I, for one, strongly encourage people to hunt down a used copy whenever possible - it's unfortunately out of print.)
Anyway, many of you know that Nancy led birding tours to Costa Rica for years and she has also traveled to several other countries in Central and South America, always birding but with a special focus on hummingbirds. As I write this, she's in Peru for eleven days, this time on a tour led by someone else (so she can focus on the birds, and not having to run the show!). The trip includes a visit to the only valley where the Marvelous Spatuletail can be found.
Those of you who have seen the "Hummingbirds" episode of the PBS show Nature which included the segment on Nancy's work, will almost certainly remember this stunning bird. I hope she gets some fantastic looks at it.
