Middle of July brings the rufous hummingbird, already migrating south. Rufous only visits my area on the southbound migration. The northbound route is much farther west.

This yearly visit changes the behavior of the broadtails who have been feeding and nesting here
since late April. As the rufous charge in and seize control of July flowers and feeders,
the broatails must sneak to the feeders and flowers for a quick sip before a guarding rufous
chases them away.

Smaller and faster than the broadtails, rufous are expert flyers and very agressive. It is hard to get  hovering photos of either species at my place right now with all the quick sipping and high speed fleeing and pursuing going on around here.

However, I confess I haven’t put much effort into photographing the hummingbirds and my normal nature subjects for a few weeks.

A wonderful week long visit with family has kept me busy photographing people rather than birds and other nature subjects. I also spent a few hours this month photographing a wedding party as an assistant to a professional portrait and wedding photographer/friend and neighbor.

Dark afternoons have promised and sometimes delivered welcome rains this month. After the rains, I like to photograph summer wildflowers. But, I’ve been digging and pulling alien weeds after the rains (it’s easier then) and doing wildfire mitigation (cleaning up deadfall and dry plant material) around my home this month. 

Now, I’ve made a promise to myself to spend more time in the coming weeks on my nature photography work and less time with people and house chores. A moose was sighted in an area close to my home recently. I’d love to photograph her if she’s still around. 

Happy July!

Con

P.S. Another project on the table now is an Artist Co-op in a nearby town. This is something I’ve
wanted to do with area artists about for about three years. An opportunity is on the horizon, so we are meeting and researching. I’ll write more about this when (and if)  we get to the planning stage.
 

June in Consworld means hummingbirds feeding on the wild current bushes near my home.  It also means printing and framing for my display at the annual Rhubarb Festival in mid June at the fire house in Pine Grove. I’ve been working on my display when it is too windy to photograph. The images above were captured a few days ago.

Yesterday I waxed the tent for Saturday’s show and tested the set up in a variable but mostly light wind. I’ll have help setting up on Saturday morning, but ran through the whole set up from canopy with weights attached through display walls and print bins. I always get everything out and test it before the first show of the season.

I didn’t hang anything on the display yesterday during my tent and display wall test. The plan for hanging is still evolving in my head as I frame and count and group images with options I’ve scribbled on scrap paper. More frames should arrive today and when I’ve finished the framing I’ll print all the new labels and information cards.

As I print, frame, sort, and pack, I long to be outside photographing. When I’m outside photographing I forget about all the things I have to do to be prepared for Saturday’s festival for a few minutes and enjoy the light and colors of June.

 
This male broadtail hummingbird spread his wings several times before flying away. He was probably showing another hummingbird he was prepared to defend his territory.

 The birds often perch on a dead twig where they have an almost 360 degree view to watch over the wildflowers and feeders. The males seem to spend more time chasing rivals away than they do feeding on the flowers they so jealously guard.

Though the images could have been cropped more for this post, I wanted to include a few of the spring-green aspen leaves in the images above.

Below is a both a closer crop of the bird and the full image:

The bird is a very small part of the full image at the distance (perhaps 40 feet) I was working with the 100 to 400 telephoto fully extended to 400mm. Taking a photo of something the size of my thumb from that distance is ok when I’m just cropping for web images, but there just aren’t enough pixels in the bird to make a big print. I usually photograph when the birds are closer.

Windy weather has limited my outdoor flash work recently. (See previous post.) The flash extender acts as a sail in the wind. More to come on lighting up the hummingbirds when I have more to show and write.

When capturing hummingbird images, my habit has been to work morning or evenings on bright sunny days to get enough sunlight on the birds for the shutter speeds I wanted. For a large part of the day, the sun was too high to light the undersides and the wings and beak cast even deeper shadows on their bodies. The best time for me to work on hummingbird images in natural light was between 8 and 9 a.m. on a cloudless day.

The birds didn’t always cooperate much during my prime time, but I was able to get some nice images and I was happy. The bright feathers on the neck or gorget of the males would reflect the brilliant color in my image if the bird was at the right angle. With my back to the sun I hoped the bird would be turned just enough toward the sun to get the reflection of bright color coming my way.

I’d read about others who photograph hummingbirds using one or more flashes to light the shadows and ensure the reflection from the neck or gorget feathers on the colorful males and I had all sorts of excuses for not trying it myself. I thought that lighting up the birds might scare them or annoy the birds. I didn’t want the images to look unnatural. I didn’t want to be tied down with a lot of heavy lighting equipment since I like to move frequently from one location to another. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on flash equipment. Yet, I kept reading about how much lighting the birds could improve my images.

I continued reading and making excuses for my lack of lighting until I visited with photographer George Lepp at a hummingbird festival recently. Mr. Lepp’s set up was simpler than I thought it would be and though he did have a second slave flash set up, he told me I could really improve my hummingbird photography with just one flash unit on the camera.

I got the Canon 580EX II. It arrived a few days ago along with a flash extender also recommended by Mr. Lepp. When the flash arrived I did some indoor practice with camera and flash settings. (Why does new equipment arrive on very windy and rainy days?) Today I was ready to go out and light some little birds. The broadtail below is my first (and only) flash hummingbird. You may click on an image to see it larger.

The flash only fired every third capture in the high speed shooting mode. I’m recharging the batteries to see if I can improve that. If it doesn’t improve with fresh batteries, I may check into an additional battery pack, like the ones Mr. Lepp had connected to his flash units.

I don’t usually photograph at this particular feeder location because the background isn’t very pretty, but that’s where the bird went and I followed. I also don’t usually photograph them on the feeders, so next I shall try flashing the hummingbirds as they hover around the wild current flowers.

After reading Mr. Lepp’s column in Outdoor Photographer for a few years, it was interesting to meet him and his wife, Kathryn. Now, thanks to the Lepps sharing photography tips with people at the hummingbird festival, I’m hoping to improve my hummingbird photography.

Let the hummer wars begin.

Rufous is here now guarding the flowers and feeders and chasing all others away. The broadtails are sneaking in to the feeder when they can for a quick sip and early this morning before there was enough light for photographing it, a male calliope hummingbird was here for a drink.

Rufous sits on the tip of a dead douglas fir branch to keep an eye out for intruders. He doesn’t seem to know that he’s the intruder here. The broadtails arrived months ago.

Rufous is like the grade school bully who thinks he has to make up for his small size by being faster and meaner than everyone else. For those of you who haven’t met rufous, you can see how small he is in the image below where he sits on a feeder with a 5 inch tall bottle.

Rufous will stay for about a month and then he will move on. He’s already ‘summered’ in the north and will continue his southward migration sometime next month. Rufous hummingbirds nest as far north as southern Alaska and winter in Mexico. They travel northward in spring through the pacific lowlands and make the return trip mid summer through the Rockies to take advantage of peak wildflower times.

The male rufous’ gorget (the iridescent throat patch) reflects bright orange-red when light hits the feathers. The feathers of the gorget direct light in a single direction so that the color seems to change from dull brown-red to bright orange-red as the bird flies about.

Rufous is a little harder than the broadtails to photograph on the wing. I need bright sunlight so I can get my shutter speed quite high. My most popular rufous image can be seen here.

The broadtails are fighting over favorite perches near the currant bushes loaded with tiny pink flowers. They like perches with a 360 degree view so they can see the competition coming. Sitting on the tip of a dead branch, the hummingbird looks left, right, and back twisting and turning his head above late May’s food of choice – the wild wax currant flowers. Though they perch elsewhere, this little upward pointing twig is the spot they most often choose. The first image was taken last evening in the after glow of sunset. The next one, this morning, same place but from a slightly different angle to take advantage of the morning light.

1/640 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, focal length 300mm

1/640 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, focal length 300mm

For a look at a broadtail feeding on a currant flower, go to this page of my website: http://www.dailyphotography.net/hummingbird_gallery/pages/natural_food.htm

Looking for more fox kit photos? A new gallery of fox kit photos is on my website now. http://www.dailyphotography.net/redfoxgallery/index.htm