Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Day 178: June 26th – Friendlier hummers


Partly sunny, cool (low 60s) and breezy

       I replenished the hummingbird feeders around the house this morning and the feast was well received.  At least two hummingbirds have decided to call our place home for a while and have made repeated trips back and forth to the feeders.  I broke out the longer lens and positioned myself inside the open door leading out to the deck where one of the feeders is located.  The hummers seemed much more comfortable with me at a distance and allowed me to get some decent shots.

      At first, I simply concentrated on getting a clear shot of the perched bird. 


      Once I was satisfied with the results from that group of shots, I tried for a closer shot of just the head.  Once again, a few shots returned a pretty nice portrait.


       Finally, I boosted the speed of the sensor and moved the shutter speed up to 1/1250 second and managed to freeze the little guy in mid-flight.  Patience has its rewards.


       We rounded out the day with a short trip over to Sterling Forest to see if the Mississippi kite I photographed several weeks ago was still on the scene.  We were happy to see the bird make several passes by the parking area where he has been seen in the past.  He chose not to land in his favorite tree, however, so we were resigned to getting our mind’s eye image and not one with the camera.  All in all a very pleasant and successful day just the same.

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