It's been a very long week, with some pretty unpleasant news for all of us. So every once in awhile, it's time to take a break and just enjoy the natural world around us. So once again, I present a Wednesday photo break, again around hummingbirds, updated with new photos:
Once again, I visited my friend with the hummingbird nest outside his window and managed to get a few more photos. I will note that these birds get big very fast. Here's a photo of the birds by themselves on the nest:
After the fold, I'll give a little review of the photos I'd posted previously, plus four other brand new photos from August 12th.
As usual, these are all smaller versions of the photos; clicking on them gets you to my web site which provides larger versions of the photos along with details about the shot (shutter speed, aperture settings, etc.)
Archilochus colubris, the ruby-throated hummingbird, is the most common hummingbird in the US. But even with that, I rarely get this good a look at them.
These photos started on July 9th, with this photo of the mother hummingbird on her nest:
On July 29th, I went back to check the nest again:
Then, a week later, on August 4th, I found out that the babies had hatched, so I checked in again. I got these photos:
Notice how small the babies are. Tiny little beaks, rest of face and body not even visible. The next photos I have of them are only eight days later. We'll get to those in a moment.
But first... I had some good luck with adult hummingbirds in my own yard. These were taken on August 10th:
Fast forward to August 12th. I knew the babies would be bigger, but I didn't realized they'd be this much bigger. These ones are nearly adult sized, in only eight days. Here are the babies by themselves:
Notice the spotted necks on these birds. That's one of the markers of a juvenile. Full adult ruby-throated hummingbirds either have a bare neck (females) or bright red (males). Juveniles can have these spotted necks.
Here are two more photos, these of the momma feeding her baby:
For those who are wondering about the equipment I used for this: all these photos were taken with a Pentax K20d, using a Sigma 50-500mm lens. The photos from August 12th were all taken with an added 1.4x teleconverter. Two of them (the one on top and the first of the babies by themselves towards the bottom) were taken using a Pentax external flash, in slave mode, being triggered wirelessly. That was tricky, as I couldn't put the flash outside the window without putting the nest at risk, so I was only able to get partial illumination from the flash, but it was sufficient to the task.
As usual, feel free to treat this as an open photography and/or birding thread and, most of all, enjoy the photos.
I don't post all my photographs on 'Kos, 'cause I take a lot of photographs. If you want weekly (or daily) e-mail alerts when I've put new photos on my web site, you can do so via this link.
Also, there have been some great birding and/or photo diaries as of late:
Other relevant Ruby-Throated Hummingbird Links:
I will close with two more photos, both from last summer at our feeders:
I call the second one "look out!"