Capturing hummingbirds

One very pleasant surprise at the Bar B are the hummingbirds. In late spring the hummers start to arrive and arrive at the exact hook where the red-water feeders hung the previous year.

As the summer progresses the little hummers spend a good part of the day at the feeders. They flit back and forth between the trees and the glass and metal cylinders several times a day.

Humming isn’t exactly what they do; it’s a metallic sound that moves fast past your ear. Easily recognizable they are incredibly fast and beautiful. They’re also mean as snakes and there are frequent fights at the feeder.

Soon they will disappear one by one and head to their winter havens, wherever it is.

For now I’ve captured on in a jpg. though it’s not as clear as I would like it to be. Little Fred, my rather old D200 with a f2.8 70-200 Nikon lens is slower than I would like and it’s a heavy piece of glass. It requires a yearly cleaning where several ounces of sand are cleaned out of it. Basically a bad lens but it can capture the fast-moving birds. It takes patience and more patience to capture a hummer on the wing.

I still have a few more weeks to try before winter sets in, seeing as how it’s August.