The males left two weeks ago, I wish debonair Don a safe flight to Mexico…I’m jealous! Ha! We had a single female hanging about but the juveniles were getting pretty obnoxious and she packed up and left as well, must be like Spring Break in Florida, the locals hide;)
Every flower is a new adventure. “Can I hang on, can I sit on it, where do I poke, how far do I have to stick my beak in?” over and over, then there are the fights;) Like petulant kids on a playground wanting to be the biggest bully!
I am going to miss their daily antics, feeling a bit blue, time to look at what else is out there:) It seems the leaves are turning early but probably not, I’m just feeling like I’m not ready for the changes coming….
We have other migrants starting to go through, a beautiful wood duck sat perched on her log before deciding to swim off…On Golden Pond:)
A young Yellow Shafted Northern Flicker showed up in the locust tree. He chatted away with a juvenile Yellow Bellied Sapsucker beside him, such beautiful colours! The geese have started to move…
LBB’s abound, I had to look up one recent fledgling hopping away from me as I tried to take it’s picture! I think it was a Red-eyed Vireo. Sure sign of Fall coming, the Brown Creepers are back! NO! The Sparrows are at the feeders as well. I spied a few warblers this morning as well. Now to sit and wait during morning coffee. They are so fast!
While it might appear I live on a diet of Hummingbird and Loon photography..;)…they will soon be moving on and I will get to reexplore our Fall and Winter friends. The American Goldfinches are turning colour as well! Maybe it’s just the juveniles, no longer bright yellow but a military “You can’t see me as well” hue.
We have had our first Lanark County Camera Club meeting. Mike chauffeured me and ran into a trio of astronomy guys so maybe he’ll be a regular! Ha! I joined him up! I did have a lot of questions on hummingbird photography so thought I’d share them, for next year anyway, or for those that live in more Southerly climes! Lucky bas*ards;)
I use natural light, my camera does not have a flash but I would like to explore that one day as well! Light is the key to everything! I prefer the late morning as the sun hits the flowers from a higher angle and I don’t get as many shadows.
I have a few pots of flowers I plant each year. The Canna lilies are always a big hit as well as crocosmia lucifer, another bulb. Some folks can over winter them in the ground but I haven’t had much luck and pull them in the Fall for replanting. Spider Dahlias are also popular with the hummingbirds. I sit in a chair, hand held camera about 6-8′ away and wait! I also hang a feeder a foot or two away from the potted plants to help bring these little flying jewels in!
Half the shots get deleted, either out of focus or the light isn’t right. I shoot manual with the focus set on “animal eye detection” (what an amazing feature on the Canon R5) on my older Canon 6D I used single spot focus and that worked as well. I have a 9 year old Tamron 150-600 G2 Telephoto lens. I use the 2.2-10.0 m setting so the focus doesn’t hunt and peck as much. My f stop is usually set a 6.3, I can move it up to F8 if there is lot of light! For speed it varies from 1/4000 sec to 1/8000 sec and the ISO pretty much lives at 3200. Some shots can get noisy if the light isn’t the best so I rely on Topaz Denoise in photoshop. I can play with the shadows and highlights there in RAW which can help a bit but you do need good light for these guys! Hope that helps anyone starting out! Damn they are fast!
I’ll leave you with a juvenile trying out the crocosmia lucifer flowers…safe journeys little flying jewels, I look forward to your return in the Spring.
On a sad note, I found out my uncle, Harry Crosby passed away last night. He may not have been the perfect husband, or father, they rarely exist anywhere, but he was my perfect uncle and he had a long and prosperous run at life. He encouraged me to write and photograph, he offered critiques and suggestions and was always very supportive. The last of my family of my mother’s generation. They saw so much of the world change. I had a straggler hummingbird stop by quickly this morning, fly high Harry, may your adventures continue wherever your spirit goes…Que la paz y el amor te guíen…