Category: Hummingbirds

attention to detail, backyard visitors, birds, Close encounters, Florida wildlife, Hummingbirds, in the neighborhood, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

In the tree…

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There is a limited amount of time in the morning when there is enough light out there to make sitting and waiting for the hummingbird worthwhile. But then the sun rises over the trees and shines directly into your eyes and drives you into the house. So that’s what I was doing this morning when I saw the hummingbird fly into the yard, but up into the oleander tree and not onto the flowers. I generally like those silhouette type images with a bird in the oleander, or I think I’m going to like them, I sure take enough of them when I get the chance. But they usually have branches in the wrong place and I’m disappointed and I hardly ever use them. But when it’s the hummingbird that I can see up there, closer than usual in the tree than when she is in the flowers, I’m going to keep shooting. And when she flys off and then lands in the tree again, but in a better spot this time, I’m going to shoot many, many more. And then it’s time to process them, and if I want to see her I have to over-process them, but I couldn’t resist.

No processing at all, this is what the camera gave me to work with.
But I wanted to SEE her.
Another bird landed in the tree and she took off, but she visited some of the oleander flowers before leaving for good.

I don’t know if the same picture taken later in the day might have worked out better. Or if maybe that expensive lens that I keep telling myself I don’t need would make the expense worthwhile. It is getting more tempting all the time though…

attention to detail, attitude adjustments, backyard visitors, birds, Florida wildlife, flowers, gardens, Hummingbirds, just imagine, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

Some not-so-frequent fliers…

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We had just talked about the fact that we hadn’t seen the brown thrasher in a while, and he turned up within a day or two. Same thing happened with the Carolina wren. I love it when that happens. Otherwise the cardinals are seen constantly, and that wasn’t the case when we were over-run with red wing blackbirds. And we still see a pair of red-wings, but two at the time is fine with us.

Thrashers are related to mockingbirds and have lots of songs. I wonder if that’s who I’ve been hearing out there lately.
They will come to backyards when food is offered, and if there is dense foliage close by. Guess I know what it is that they like about our place.
And remember the Carolina wren with the criss cross beak? Looks like he’s doing just fine.
We have lots of cardinals in the yard. Young ones we think.
This young one had me guessing. It seemed to be a red bellied woodpecker, but minus the red on the head. I wondered if it was some other woodpecker.
Nope, a juvenile. Didn’t look the part but sure acted like a red-bellied woodpecker.
Is this the dad I wonder? He’s sticking his tongue out at me.
When a Carolina chickadee stays still you just have to take a picture.
I missed the hummingbird in this photo, but my online watercolor group would love seeing all the folded leaves that have been giving some of us fits recently. Me included.
More folded leaves, and the hummingbird.

I’ve been playing with the settings in my camera trying to up my game a bit. But I can’t expect much if I insist on sitting out there in the dim early morning light. Unless I spend a lot of money on a fancy lens, but it hasn’t come to that yet. So today I put the extender on the camera, which means I need even more light, but I wouldn’t have to crop as much. It makes it harder to ‘find’ the hummingbird through the even smaller peep hole it gives me, but what else do I have to do these days but amuse myself? And I do.

attitude adjustments, backyard visitors, blessings, bucket list, Florida wildlife, flowers, gardens, Hummingbirds, in the neighborhood, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

Frequent fliers…

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The hummingbird has achieved the status of frequent flier as of late. I never have to wait long for her to show up. She may play peek-a-boo with me in the foliage, but that doesn’t stop me from taking many, many shots as the day goes by.

I was behind a student driver in heavy traffic yesterday, so maybe that’s why I saw this as putting on the brakes.
But mostly you catch her dining, because she levitates and probably spends all the calories she is taking in on keeping those wings going.
At least her poses are a bit different as she dines.
And dines some more.
A little different pose.
She moves so fast that only a few of the shots are even worth working on, but all of these shots probably were taken in less than two minutes. Much less.

I’ve been wondering if I had a couple more of these fire bushes would I get more hummingbirds at a time? Maybe things are just right out there.

a second look, attention to detail, attitude adjustments, backyard visitors, Florida wildlife, flowers, gardens, Hummingbirds, in the neighborhood, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

Technology…

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I thought I’d had a light bulb moment yesterday. The effect of low light on the ability of the camera/lens to take sharp pictures had suddenly seemed more clear to me. It’s not as clear now that I’m sitting at the computer a day later. But the hummingbird returned to the yard over and over again yesterday, which allowed for me to discover that my attempts to adjust the settings resulted in basically the same sort of images. But I had a good time while I was doing it…

She was visiting a flower that was low to the ground.
Even in the foliage I could find her in the viewfinder.
Then she seemed to stop to decide what to do next.
Then she found the perfect flower to visit.
And also posed up high.
At one point she flew into the oleander tree and stopped there longer than I’ve seen her stop anywhere. Then I walked out for a different view of her and she flew away.
It seems like she was hovering and planning her next move.
A new angle.
Another pose.

It is such a treat to see her out there. I saw two of them fly through the yard yesterday but only one was there when I was getting pictures. I will keep taking pictures of them as long as they keep showing up because eventually they will continue their migration. Then I’ll be happy if/when they return next year.

attitude adjustments, backyard visitors, birds, Florida wildlife, flowers, gardens, Hummingbirds, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography, rain

Rainy days…

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We need the rain. Well, our lawn needs the rain, but then it will grow some more and the lawn guy hasn’t been able to come for a month, and it will probably be another month before he can get here. So we texted other lawn people but had no luck with that. It’s getting to be a jungle out there, and that started before the rain we’ve had in the last 24 hours. But it was a little after 7 AM and the rain had stopped so I decided to go out and see if the hummingbird would show up, and he did. I fired off one burst of photos and he was gone, but for a while there we didn’t think he was coming to the yard at all, so it’s all good.

He was already getting ready to take off.
Up, up, and away.
Lots of female cardinals in the yard lately. On the ground and in the shrubs. Everything was still soaking wet out there.
We still see a red-winged black bird from time to time. It’s a lot easier to appreciate how pretty they are now that they are showing up one at a time. Lots less trips to Wild Birds too!
Those pesky squirrels are kind of cute, when they aren’t chewing a hole in the screen or swinging from the bird feeders that they somehow managed to levitate up to…

Lawn mower rentals. It’s probably a thing, right?

connections, exploring new places, family, friends, fun, gardens, Hummingbirds, I love New England, making memories, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, New Hampshire views, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, sunset, travel

Going home…

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If the only reason to visit my friend in New Hampshire had been to see her hummingbirds then I could have turned around and gone home after the first day. The hummingbirds put on quite a show that day, visiting the feeder which was just outside the kitchen window. They were so tiny, seemingly smaller than the ones in my Florida backyard. And to see them from just 5 or 6 feet away, as opposed to across my backyard even though the yard isn’t all that deep, was amazing. But the reconnection to an old friend who is more like family was the real reason for the visit. The hummingbirds were a bonus.

I have a million pictures, how can I choose just a couple?
The little female was just as photogenic.
I told the Bird Buddy not to show me photos of doves, or that would be all I ever saw. But it still shows me doves, it just calls them goldfinches.
I couldn’t wait to get my photos into my computer where I could use some of the new tools in Lightroom and Photoshop to do things like get rid of the traffic signs in this photo.
Another one of the photos I wanted to see in the computer.

We did go out and visit quite a few places, and spent time with both of my friend’s daughters who treated us royally. And we signed up for watercolor classes so we had fun playing with our new paints, etc. But mostly we talked, and talked, and talked some more. It seems as if we picked up the conversation from the day before, even if we hadn’t been together since February, and the visit is too short no matter how long it is. Visiting a friend from your earliest days is always like going home again. It makes me happy.