Definitely NDR

Al Hansen

Al Hansen

Well-known member
Like the swallows of Capistrano, for the past 17 years I have been keeping track of the black chinned hummingbirds when they come back to our area in the spring time of the desert southwest. Every year with the exception of 1 day they have arrived on April 1st. That one year I spotted one on April 2nd.

One of my favorite spots to go when observing them is at our pond in the early morning hours. Since they are not quite use to having me around all the time, I am using my 100-400mm lens. Hopefully later on I will be able to use my 24-105mm lens which takes much better pictures in lower light.

All of these are of the males. The females are just now beginning to show up in good numbers and the mating season is just around the corner.
Al

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I got lucky on this shot when the sunlight hit his gorget just right. That flash of bright purple was there for a fleeting second.

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They love being around water and to take a bath on a daily basis. It is the one time that they will allow themselves this luxury. In this shot the male black-chinned hummingbird looks so "at ease" but don't fool yourself. My camera just happened to catch it in this pose. In 1/100th of a second it could be flying again.

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The little tykes don't seem to be afraid of fast moving water, either. In fact, some of them love the challenge of hanging on right at the very edge when fluffing their feathers.
Al


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Al, I've been waiting for you to start posting pictures of these little guys. I'm always amazed by the pictures. Maybe, it's because I've only seen a hand full of them in my lifetime, and you have them come to your feeders in swarms. Unbelievable! One of these days I'm going to have to get out of Florida and come see your desert first hand.
Thanks for sharing, Jeff
 
Love the Hummers! Years ago I got to help band Ruby-Throats in northeast OK. We used a cage trap with a feeder inside and with a trap door connected to string that ran into a house that we watched from. They didn't seem to mind being caught because we would catch some over and over and they really wouldn't put up a fight in the process. I have 2 feeders on my back patio and it's fun to watch the hummer wars as they buzzed back and forth chasing each other off. Eventually the war ended up with a single pair laying claim to both feeders and guarding them relentlessly.
 
Thanks, Jeff. One of the things I thought about after we moved here was what "if" we had moved to the boot heel of NM or had gone into southeastern Arizona? What we have here is nothing compared to those areas. Not only that but we have only 4 species and they have at least 12 species.

But then I thought about duck hunting and I decided how happy I am with seeing 4 species of hummers.
Al

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Thanks so much for telling me about that trapping experience, Tom. That had to be so much fun. I'm trying to picture in my head the size of that band that was used and if you needed a magnifying glass to read what was printed on it?
Al
 
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