JDW Photos and Life

The last of the hummer photos for this season. Like the bird in the last photo, I'm out of here and your inbox is now free of clutter until who knows when. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

Some of the more challenging shots of hummers center around the feeder wars. Like most wild animals, protection of food resources is part of nature. I only put out 2 feeders this season and one of them has been guarded by a single male essentially the entire time. Every once-in-a-while, a second bird may be able to feed at that location. The other feeder has birds around it all the time. Often, there is a bird at all 8 locations. There are still wars between individuals but there are also periods of "calm" resupply. The wars happen incredibly fast. A hummer may come in hovering for a second and then attack or get attacked. It is difficult to keep the camera focused on a bird with that much movement and even more difficult to capture the moment of conflict. The combination of a long zoom lens plus an open aperture results in a very narrow depth of field such that a bird just an inch out of the focal plane will be blurred. All that said, these are some of my favorite shots. Wat...

And a few more.... I remain amazed at their beauty and incredible flying skills. Thanks, Doug White https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/

An unexpected bonus from our move to College Station 12 years ago was being in the path of hummingbird migration. We were able to enjoy them twice per year as they travelled between Mexico more northern states. The past two years have been a huge disappointment as we saw very few hummers. The past two summers were also brutal in terms of heat and drought. The summer this year has been great with very few 100+ days. We are still dry but nothing like the past two summers. The hummingbirds have also returned as we transition into the fall. I'm guessing we have about 20 birds around our house. A few years ago, we had 50+ and were making sugar solution by the gallon. I am just happy to see them return in numbers greater than 5. We are probably approaching the end of our fall visit and I realized I had not taken a single photo of them. I have 100's (probably 1000's) of hummingbird photos from previous years. Why do I need more? However, I know that most of y'all enjoy them an...