Whenever the urge to go photographing hits me my first thought is where should I go? Recently, however, I started feeding song birds at home and I’ve been very pleased with how the birds have responded. Frequent visitors include goldfinches, titmice, nuthatches, chickadees, acorn woodpeckers, scrub jays, California quail etc. However, what has grabbed my attention most so far have been the hummingbirds. No feeder was necessary for them. My wife, Joan, is an avid gardener and one of her gardening goals has been to make the garden attractive to bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. Here is an Anna’s hummingbird feeding on a penstemon flower.
I’ve spent several hours now observing and photographing them in our front garden and have been amazed at their territoriality and flying ability. They fly like miniature helicopters. Maybe I should say helicopters are a bit like gigantic hummers. I don’t think helicopters will ever get as maneuverable as hummers though. A hummer’s body shape also surprised me. I had assumed they were slim birds, but they are actually kind of “chunky” looking.
