It was quite a day...

21 years ago

... for watching hummingbirds. I don't know if it's because of migration or if all these birds have always lived here, but there were more hummingbirds in the yard than I've ever seen before. I counted up to 22 at six feeders before they started shifting feeders and were going to get too mixed up to count. I can usually count five or six in sight and hear more elsewhere, but I've never guessed that more than eight or nine lived here.

The weather was very unusual today for this area during the summer. We had heavy downpours alternating with showers all day, and got 2" of rain by late afternoon. During the deluges, every living thing took cover, but when the rain let up a little, the hummingbirds literally swarmed the feeders. I thought the resident male had left. Either that's him on the right or another one stopped in during his long trip south.

I don't know what this little guy is, but he's 5 or 6 times larger than a Ruby Throated Hummingbird. It was raining and overcast and hard to tell what color it was, but looked dull green sopping wet.

Ordinarily, only one hummingbird at a time will use a feeder here, but today they often shared, three or four to a feeder. I've never seen that in person before. They weren't particularly peaceful about it, but while it was raining, they ate more than bickered.

Don't care for this camera; I took over 100 shots today and couldn't get a shutter speed faster than 1/60th of a second and the auto focus doesn't see small subjects. In most of the shots, the birds were blurred to invisibility.

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Comments (10)

sarahbn
21 years ago
You certainly have one busy backyard! Sarah
paisley_tx
21 years ago
You're one lucky person to have that many. Awesome.
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DPallas
Original Author
21 years ago
It's back to normal today, a bird here or there, no sharing feeders, no swarms. It must have been the heavy rain limiting their opportunities to feed that caused them to attack the feeders when they could, rather than feeding at their leisure as usual. Yes, I was lucky to see that many just once, but I can see now how bad weather could seriously impede their migration. I'd like to be able to pack each of them a little knapsack full of food for the trip!
sarahbn
21 years ago
Could weigh them down! Sarah
Birdlegs
21 years ago
Now that's a treat for sure. I would be in hummer heaven!
stephenNJ
21 years ago
Wow PDallas your in Hummer heaven down there. I hope I can someday get that kind of action on my feeders.
Great shots and thanks for sharing !
- stephen
Michael_in_Oklahoma
21 years ago
What kind of camera are you using DPallas? ~ Michael
DPallas
Original Author
21 years ago
It's a brand new FujiFilm FinePix A345, very inexpensive (under $200), I bought it to do close-up macro shots on roses, which it does very well. The macro setting (1 - 30" focal distance) captures colors, light, and fine detail beautifully when the subject is relatively still or using a tripod and it has exposure level settings to help control saturation and brightness. You can't get close enough to hummingbirds to use the macro capability, in my experience. This is a macro shot taken from about two feet away and digitally zoomed, but otherwise not adjusted by software.

It's just an entry-level camera, and you can't set your own F-stops or exposure times, though you can force flashes and/or choose from several "modes" for sports, portraits, landscapes, etc... It also has white balance settings for various light conditions, and it will take video clips. The software reports all the exposure details but the camera doesn't (while you're shooting).

I don't recommend it for bird-watching or landscapes because the wide-angle (meaning anything but the macro setting) capabilities are lousy. It only works on auto-focus, and you can't see well enough on the LCD screen to tell if you really have the right object focused at a distance, though you can snap the photo then zoom in on the saved image to see if you got what you wanted. The viewfinder is totally useless. It takes most outdoor daytime photos at 1/30th of a second, and at that shutter speed, moving hummingbirds are invisible in the saved images. The 'sports' setting reduces the shutter speed to 1/60, which is almost as useless. The fastest shutter speed it's ever managed is 1/909 in the photo below, but most in the series were 1/400 - 1/600 and those still aren't fast enough for hummingbirds, imo, even if you could force it to use the faster speeds.

I'd say it's a good value for the price, but you can do much better if you spend more on one that allows 100% manual control.
Paribear
21 years ago
I use those flat round feeders as well-the hummers really like them.
DPallas
Original Author
21 years ago
It took them some time to figure out how to use it, but once one did, the others followed. I ordered a larger one with twice as many ports today because they really like it once they learn what to do with it. They used to avoid it just a few days ago - go figure!