Gleni said:they say if you can get the eye in focus the rest of the shot works.

Thanks for that tip Glen, I'd never heard that before and I'll have to try it!

Me either & I will have to try it also.

I got my first hummingbird photo today!

I have to find the energy to get the photos loaded into my computer tonight. My doctor will not be happy if she doesn't get to see the pictures I took of Itty Bitty the other day. I put the better photos on my old Apple laptop. I like the big screen, compared to my cell phone, for showing photos, but I always expect that one day it just won't turn on, so I don't do much with it. Should probably use it for the internet at night when I am sitting out on the patio. But my eyes are so exhausted at night that I barely manage to get much time on the internet with my 23" monitor. Can't imagine trying to use the little laptop's 15" monitor. It was great years ago, when my eyes were much more healthy. Loved being able to preview photos with clients in the field almost instantly. Now it takes me five minutes of squinting just to make sure the photo really is blurry, and it isn't just my eyes. Those little monitors do a good slideshow, and I don't have to worry about lost data because I stopped using the laptop for anything important after my last photo assignment years ago.

Well, I have two early appointments tomorrow, so I better get going if I am to have any hope of getting those photos reviewed. They looked good from the tiny screen of the camera, so I gotta hope they are half decent blown up.

I can relate to your eye situation.

Hummingbird! I think it is the same one, but I don't know.

The first one. The one that gets the adrenaline flowing, and then you are crazy with wanting more.


So you abandon all other plans. You can't relax until you get a really good one. And you don't know if you have a really good one because the screen on the camera is too small. The stalking begins and any sane ideas are brushed aside because you only have room in your head for the voices of madness.








You got a bunch and you are content. You don't want anyone to see how much you want to run inside to check your photos. Hoping. The only thing you can do is small talk, but your mind is reviewing the shots. Still hoping.

Well, not too bad, I think. Now that I know the best stalking locations and times, I can set up my tripod next time. Drink iced tea and lemonade and ... keep hoping.

Nice hummers! I can't remember ever seeing them at sunflowers before.

jmorth said:Nice hummers! I can't remember ever seeing them at sunflowers before.

I was thinking that also. But my memory is bad and I only have other photos I've seen to go by. I've always seen them in real life around red or orange flowers. Or sometimes at the park, I see them hovering close to the ground to catch bugs. Never could get their pictures when they do that. I need to find my old pictures from two years ago to remember all my failed hummingbird attempts in this one park. They were sure plentiful, but I couldn't keep up. I do better when I can anticipate their movements near something else I can focus on. And that park didn't have a single flower. Only some trees.

But just wait. There are more hummingbird pictures coming soon.

Ckat: Oh my goodness, I love those photo's of the hummingbird visiting the sunflower ... beautiful shots!

I too have always heard it said and noticed myself that the hummers seemed more attracted to red and orange flowers but I'm thinking they will visit most any flower to get nectar if it's readily available, no matter the bloom color. A few days ago I saw a hummingbird at a Gloriosa greenii flower but wasn't able to get my camera and get back outside in time for a photo. In my garden the hummers are usually visiting the bright orange Pagoda flowers, the Orange/Yellow Lantana and the Red Pentas but I've also seen them at hoya blooms and a week ago I spotted this little hummingbird enjoying a hanging basket of Streptocarpus saxorum. It hung around these blooms for quite a few minutes.:


And, the Northern Mockingbird today:

Interesting...I've always heard the same thing about the hummers, but in my garden they are always sampling the Texas Sage (Leucophyllum frutescens)
Seems to be a favorite.

Great pics everybody!

@plantladylin, I think you are right about them visiting any flower. Love your mockingbird photos also. Nice and crisp and great composition with the second one. I still don't even know yet if mockingbirds come to this area.

It's funny, I sat watching that sunflower very closely because it is close to the blind of the trellis and a juniper bush. The other sunflowers are further away, so I kind of thought I'd get a close up of the goldfinches. I knew hummingbird's flew through the yard, right over my head several times as I sat between the juniper bushes. I just never could come up with an idea of where they would land and certainly didn't think any of the small plants I had were suspect. But I've never taken a bird photo and not wanted to get closer for better shots to fully examine that experience by seeing up close what I had to capture to see it all better than I could in those few seconds.

I don't use bird terminology or garden terms accurately these days since getting sick and forgetting most of what I knew. Some days it feels like almost complete amnesia. But I thought, because of their long beaks, that hummingbirds prefer flowers with deep "throats" to get nectar. Knowing they also like bugs, maybe they are able to get little bugs from the little places in the sunflowers?

I guess I will have to go to the library to get some books to look up more bird info. I can see them and track them with my camera, but the things I remember are always so iffy - might have to have the books checked out frequently. At least get ideas of what birds to look out for here.

Nearly forgot, I have pics. Still from last evening.









I kind of like these pics even though it was clear across the yard, so I couldn't get closer, or really get enough shots to get an ID. Because of the shadows of the big sunflower leaves on the bird and nearly being blind looking towards the sun, I didn't think I'd get any shots of this bird in focus when I followed it across the yard. Might be another lesser goldfinch, but looks darker, especially around the eyes. I am not seeing yellow, but the sun was pretty bright. It didn't stick around long enough to get some cloud cover. I think it is the way the sun lights up the color of the leaves to make them stand out that I like. More than the bird. Thought I'd share anyway.

I think it is a male Lesser Goldfinch. the males have darker backs. Dark green or black depending on geographical location. You are in the area for more black backs.

Fabulous photos ckat! Just glorious!
I have never seen, read or heard of hummers nectaring on sunflowers. And while they prefer red or orange blooms - or at least those are the ones that bring them in - I have seen them on every color of bloom. Here's what I always read or heard ~~~~ that the bloom has to have a certain channel or shape for them to be able to nectar on it. Your photos just about prove that info. wrong ckat. The only other thing I could say is maybe it was picking bugs from the sunflower????? You would be able to tell that better by the length of time it spent in one position.

More hummingbirds. There are a couple big trees to the south of me, on our block. Not big enough to throw some shade all the way to my yard, but big enough that it becomes a cacophony of bird noises. I suspect, from watching the hummingbirds fly through the yard, that they have a nest in that tree. Unfortunately, it is way up there, further than my 300mm lens can reach for such a tiny subject.

Also have seen wasps going that way and some big beetle looking bug that never lands, has a loud buzz, and makes me think of a flying bus. Absolutely nothing in focus with that one. It seems it lumbers as it flies, but I find it extremely difficult to capture. Maybe I will have more luck this evening - would at least like to be able to see what colors it is.

Now I feel kind of bad that I have hated juniper bushes because of my allergies.

ckat: Oh my, those are wonderful photo's. I love the shots of the sunflower leaves too with that light ... and the hummers with the juniper trees are amazing, very crisp and clear!

I only got two bird pic's today ... a Dove and a Woodpecker. Itook the dog outside for a few minutes this afternoon before leaving to run some errands and there was a dove perched on the fence and on the other side of the yard there was a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers going from Palm Tree to Palm Tree and yanking the bark off near the top (searching for bugs I suppose.) The dog thought he could fly and tried to chase them ... it was a funny sight. I took the dog inside and went back out with my camera and one of the WP's took off but the other was still clinging to the side of the tree so I got a picture of it.

That dove looks wet and a bit annoyed. And the background looks very stormy, so it is a nice and moody capture done very well.

You are lucky to have woodpeckers. Love the texture of the tree's bark and the intensely serous look on the woodpecker's face. I always heard them in Denver. My late husband would swear and throw tantrums in the morning from their pecking. The neighbor across the street tried shooting them. In the city! I guess he didn't get into trouble because he's from a family of cops. I think I only had Downy woodpeckers in my sight, but never captured them in pictures. I think my yard had too many loud bird visitors for their comfort. When I did see them, they were on the same trees I saw the black-capped chickadee on many times. I called them the shy bird trees.

I haven't heard any woodpeckers around here yet.

Thanks ckat!

It looks like you have 14 species of Woodpeckers in New Mexico according to Wikipedia. Scroll down this page for a list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

Apparently a few are considered nuisance Woodpeckers in your state due to their hammering/drumming: http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_l/L...

My next door neighbor gets very aggravated with early morning drumming of the Red-bellied WP's in the early spring. They are so noisy, especially when they drum on the aluminum roof of screened porches in the neighborhood ... but the drumming doesn't bother me at all; it's just what Woodpeckers do and I'm up very early in the morning anyway.

@plantladylin, Thanks! I should have known Wikipedia had a list of NM birds. I'm so used to having a book with me. Maybe I'll PDF the pages to put them on my laptop. Then I can have the laptop out on the patio when I am sitting outside, without having to be online. Although I should stop being lazy and set up my wireless internet for my laptop. It is ten years old, and so many sites block older browsers, that it is often more frustrating than it is worth. That's the main reason I recently updated my desktop computer - just got sick of sites not working at all.

Well, I feel pretty lousy today. Maybe I will spend the day checking out the birds I can view from my yard. Then hopefully I can spot some. Wish I still had my scope, but maybe later I will get one for those birds that are too far away to capture with my camera, I can at least see them.

It just freaks me out seeing woodpeckers on your palm trees @plantladylin!

Claudia said:It just freaks me out seeing woodpeckers on your palm trees @plantladylin!

It's very common here to see Woodpeckers in many trees. The Pileated Woodpeckers haven't been damaging the palm trees, they're eating bugs they find beneath the fronds/branches where they attach to the tree.

I am so grateful for the variety of birds here in Florida. These are pictures from today ...

Blue Jay:


Mourning Dove:


Northern Cardinal female and her youngster:


Northern Mockingbird:


Ruby-throated Hummingbird close up:


Tufted Titmouse: