HUMMINGBIRDS

Have you ever tried to take a picture of a hummingbird? It is VERY difficult! All summer I have been trying to catch this - and today it finally happened! As you know, Hannah has a GREAT love for our feathered friends. She has a variety of different bird feeders on our deck. Today, they were so active! Normally we see 2-3 hummingbirds per week, but today they were just swarming around our backyard! We saw them mostly in sets of two chasing each other. I'm thinking it might be because of the weather, we have temperatures right around 60 degrees this morning. It sure seems to make these little guys feel very active and perky! I stood at the door of the deck and snapped a couple of pictures, and then decided to sit in a chair on the deck and wait for them to come to the bird feeder. Can you believe they actually came within a few feet of me? I had to turn the ISO a little high so I could get the shutter speed high enough to try and freeze the motion of the wings. I think if it was sunny, they might have turned out slightly better, since the shutter speed could have been higher and the ISO lower. They are soooooo very quick and their wings move so fast! It is very fun to hear their little chirpings too!

EDITED TO SAY: So, this beautiful weather today inspired me to go buy the fall mums to plant in containers on the patio and deck like I do every year. Doesn't it seem that everything is blooming early this year? What does that mean? Hard winter? Not sure. As I was on the deck pulling out the sad-looking summer flowers that were looking like they could just die any day now, a hummingbird came whizzing by and stopped at the hummingbird feeder about two feet away from me. I just froze there and watched it. I could have reached out and grabbed it if I was quick enough! And then he whizzed off again (you can literally hear the "hum" of his wings). So I went back to dutifully pulling the flowers out of the pots, when that little guy came right back and helped himself to the nectar in the flowers that were IN MY HAND!!!! I couldn't believe it! Those birds have no fear of flower-yanking fall-loving moms! Apparently, he didn't agree with my decision that the flowers had seen their last day. It was as if he was saying "Um, excuse me, I wasn't done with that yet!!"