Saturday, September 04, 2010

I get scolded

People who feed hummingbirds and have cameras cannot help trying to get pictures of these entertaining little visitors. Donna over at Just Me posted a lovely video of the crowd of hummingbirds at her feeder. I cannot top that.

About 5 hummingbirds come to the two feeders we have put out,and trying to get interesting photos them has been an exercise in frustration. Although my attempts have not been a complete disaster, I have not been smashingly successful, either.

On Thursday, after watching the hummingbirds all morning as I worked, I decided to try to take a close-up picture with my camera right up against the screen. That could have been an amazing photo, because as soon as she saw me move behind the window screen, she flew over and hovered about 2 inches in front of the camera, but I could not get it organized to take a picture of her.

So, I decided to station myself outside on the deck near the feeder – very still – so I could get a picture.


Within a minute or two, a titmouse arrived and began squawking at me 


and then another.... and then another (and you can listen to what that sounds like here)...

And then they were joined by 3 or 4 chickadees...


who also began squawking at me.

In the midst of all this chattering, a hummingbird did show up, but the shutter speed on my camera is s-o-o-o-o slow that the really great shots I thought I was getting did not turn out quite so good.

But, here are the two pictures in which one can actually see a hummingbird.





Before too many more days pass, all of these little guys will head off south to the Gulf and will either spend the winter there or head on down further into southern Mexico and central America. And we will eagerly await their return in the Spring for another summer of entertainment.

3 comments:

Paula said...

Pretty pictures! Our hummingbirds are odd creatures. They come promptly on March 15th and are supposed to leave in October but usually leave here in September. This year they left early I'm thinking to go farther north for a more flowery area. Now I'm waiting to see if they stop by to say bye bye before they leave for good until next year. They are such a pleasure.

Oklahoma Granny said...

Last year we saw a few hummingbirds around and so this year we put out 2 feeders. In the spring we had a few and I was hopeful more would follow. The exact opposite happened. Maybe they didn't like the food that was in the feeders. Last week I saw one lone hummer. Maybe he needed a quick snack on his way south.

Ladybird World Mother said...

WOW!!! I simply adore hummingbirds and always love watching them. There aren't any in England, or not that I know of... your picture was brilliant!! I know just how fast they move, so well done! xx