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February 22, 2010
Hummingbird Tales: They're outgrowing the nest
The hummingbird chicks continue to mature at an amazingly fast pace, now so big they can barely fit in their nest. In this shot you can get a good look of the shafts on their wings, the feathers growing out and opening up like downy blossoms. This picture was taken just a couple of days before the ones below.
While the chicks remain still when I approach the nest, they're quite active, shifting their positions, sometimes head to head ....
And sometimes head to tail. It's a little more hazardous when they're arranged like this (at least for the intrepid photographer); at any given moment, either chick might lift its rump and shoot a high-velocity stream of waste out of the nest.
The mother comes in for a landing, breakfast ready. I don't usually care for flash, but I needed it to capture her movements; when shot with available light, she was nothing but a blur. I also like the colors and texture of the feathers on her back.
Her wings appear to be almost coal black and velvet covered, and her tail feathers almost look like a herringbone twill.
Lest you think the mother hummingbird is feeding the chicks nothing but nectar, check her out as she hovers, picking which gnat or mosquito she's about to devour.
Having selected the tastiest looking bug, she swoops in for the kill, beak agape, a pint-sized Great White of the skies.
Posted by Mike Lief at February 22, 2010 07:43 AM
Comments
Great pics! Keep 'em coming. I can remember the first time I saw a hummingbird in real life. You hear that they're really tiny but you never get how remarkably small they are until you actually see one.
Posted by: BlogDog at February 23, 2010 08:14 AM
Came the spring, I picked a corner and
set my mind to making a flower
garden in the midst of this mass of
weeds unattended through
Winters toughening of the soil.
I tilled, and pulled, and turned, and broke, and bled...
The soil was perfect now...
But, alas! The puppy was fervent in her efforts to help me dig!
So I cut, and I sawed, and I nailed,
and created the most beautiful little picket fence with a gate.....
and planted a tree......
and planted my flowers...
and tended and watered and weeded
and nurtured all through the Spring and Summer months....
To this day, this perfect Autumn morning,
while standing in my doorway,
sipping that first cup of coffee....
I saw the fast-beating wings of that little faerie,
flitting from flower to flower...
was all worth it in that one moment.
Posted by: Lady Gordon at February 24, 2010 07:10 AM