This Week at Hilton Pond
Bill Hilton Jr.
Executive Director
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
York, South Carolina 29745 USA
Costa Rica Hummingbirds 2008—Beyond the Aloe Vera: Krazy ‘08s Delta (11-14 February 2008)
The third report on our 2008 Costa Rica hummingbird banding expedition is now posted. It includes a summary of all our ruby-throated hummingbird work to date in Guanacaste Province, plus descriptions of our efforts to find other hummer havens away from the aloe fields. If you're interested in hummingbird flowers, you may especially enjoy our photographic gallery of the "Top Ten" tropical nectar plants visited by ruby-throats on our study site.
To view the 11-14 February 2008 installment of "This Week at Hilton Pond," please visit http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek080211.html . Note that abundant images may make the page slow to load; if so, thanks for your patience.
Figure 1. On their wintering grounds in Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) feed on variety of non-red flowers, including those of canopy trees such as the Inga (Inga edulis). Photograph copyright Bill Hilton Jr.
Costa Rica Hummingbirds 2008—Ruby-throat Migration Routes (15-29 February 2008)
The fourth and final report on our recent expeditions to Costa Rica deals with the question of how ruby-throated hummingbirds actually get into Guanacaste Province and the Aloe Vera fields where they congregate in winter. We hope you'll take at look at the photo essay and respond to our speculation. To view the 15-29 February 2008 installment of "This Week at Hilton Pond," please visit http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek080215.html .
As always we include a tally of birds banded locally during the current period. There's also mention of an interesting cluster of already banded--and old--purple finches that showed up in our traps.
Figure 2. Ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) occur in winter from Central Mexico to northern Panama, but no one is sure what route they take to get to the Pacific Coast provinces of Costa Rica. Map copyright Bill Hilton Jr.
Wisconsin Winter Pilgrimage: The Conservation Legacy of Aldo Leopold (1-15 March 2008)
We were fortunate this March to journey to southern Wisconsin to speak about our hummingbird research, but the highlight of the trip for us was a behind-the-scenes tour of the old stomping grounds of conservation pioneer Aldo Leopold. Among other things, we got to visit "The Shack," the almost-mythical structure where Leopold formulated many of his thoughts for his beloved book, A Sand County Almanac. For a photo essay about Leopold and our visit, please see the 1-15 March 2008 installment of "This Week at Hilton Pond" at http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek080301.html .
As always we include a tally of all birds banded or recaptured at Hilton Pond during the period, as well as miscellaneous nature notes. There's also a link to a map of ruby-throated hummingbird migration--the better to know when to put out your feeder(s) this spring.
Figure 3. Aldo Leopold's Shack near Baraboo, Wisconsin, is a historic site dear to the hearts of many American conservationists. Photograph copyright Bill Hilton Jr.
Ah, Metamorphosis! (16-21 March 2008)
Last fall we collected a caterpillar that in turn formed a pupa that opened up unexpectedly at Hilton Pond, producing a moth whose external structure s bordered on the abstract. For a macrophotographic view of the adult insect that emerged, please visit our essay for 16 March 2008 at http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek080316.html .
As always we include a tally of all birds banded and recaptured during the period--and there were a lot of both--plus a few miscellaneous nature notes.
Figure 4. The pink-striped oakworm moth, Anisota virginiensis (female above), takes its name from bold colors of its larval stage. Photograph copyright Bill Hilton Jr.
To help support the education, research, and conservation work of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History, please see http://www.hiltonpond.org/FundingMain.html . Editor. 
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