At sunset the Hummers always go into a feeding frenzy! They are like feathered piranha!
I placed my finger by the feeding port and a male Rufous promptly perched on it and began to sip away merrily! (It’s like last call at a bar!) A female Rufous then decided that she wanted that spot to sip away merrily herself, but I imagined the male said “GET LOST”! So her response was to perch on top of HIM! GIRL POWER RULES!
When I saw her do that I laughed away merrily myself!
When the moon rises in the east it’s always pale or faint. It will continue to rise and to get brighter and brighter. It will be it’s brightest when night has fallen. To take a good picture of the moon the brightness and contrast must be in the ball park. It’s too faint when it just rises and too bright when it’s dark out. So I’ve found there is about(?) a 30 minute time window when the moon is just perfect for shooting! The Goldi Loks time,not too little and not too much.
I took this shot (of a eagle I do not know) because the eagle was perched just right but my timing was off. I was too early. I tried to shoot two other eagle friends but couldn’t because of the angle. Trees got in the way with both of them! Rats! Good thing I got this safety shot!
I found this female at the south end of Fortune Channel! I had gone past this spot not 10 minutes before but she wasn’t there then? She seemed apprehensive of me,so I didn’t push my luck! Maybe she had just woke up and hadn’t had her coffee yet?
This is a new eagle for me. It’s a male. He has the territory just north of Romeo/Juliette. I’ve never seen a eagle with feathers/hair(?) under their chin before? So I am going to call him Mr.Whiskers.
Romeo always looks great in silhouette form!
It was near sunset and the Hummers were coming by for their last drink of the night.( Sort of like humans at last call). So I see this one female Anna’s perch and take a few sips. It straightened up…..and then promptly fell backwards! It was still holding onto the perching bar so it was hanging totally upside down like a bat! It held on for a few seconds and then dropped to the concrete below! (6′)
I was obviously very alarmed to see one of my feathered friends fall,so I instantly got up and slide the balcony door open. Sure enough there she was laying on her back not moving and just looking up to me. I very gently picked her up and began talking to her asking “what was wrong”? I could feel her little heart beating very fast but thats normal for Hummers. We looked into each others eyes for a few seconds and then I gently turned her over to right her and as soon as I did that she flew away!
(I swear I heard her laughing! I think my fine feathered friend had pulled a April Fools joke on me!)
I told a friend of mine who is a birding expert (Adrian Dorst) and he said he had never heard of anything like this ever happening before? I read up on this a bit and the closest thing I could find was that Hummers do drop from their perches because of cold weather/ and not having enough energy.
It wasn’t that cold out,maybe 8 C at worse and I know It had been coming all day for drinks so It wasn’t a lack of sugar water.
I think my little friend was playing a big joke on me but I do hope there isn’t anything serious!
I sometimes slide the balcony open and just lean against the frame to watch them coming around for last drink. The feeder is only a few feet away. If I had been doing that at the time I bet I could of done the Hollywood Superman save by quickly catching my friend in mid air!
It happened so fast that there was no way for me to get pictures of this.
Btw,the header and this shot are from my archives.
Update : I did find this article but it basically refutes another person’s assertions that Perch Hypothermia (PH) is the culprit. Still a interesting read https://fieldguidetohummingbirds.com/hummingbirds/perch-hypothermia-threat/
Tofino Photography 