At the beginning of the summer hummingbirds were quite allusive, try as I might I often got a blur instead of a photo. I love hummingbirds, it may be a bit nerdy but I’ve been reading about them to try to understand their behaviour. At the beginning of summer they stay rather close to their nests and are very guarded, they fly to the feeders but often quickly return to their nests, when the flowers start blooming you can see them more frequently but they often take off at any sign of movement. As the summer goes on and the flowers start to wilt they tend to become more aggressive, often they keep away other hummingbirds. They become aggressive because they have to go further to find their nectar, so when they find it they guard it, they chase other birds off. It’s funny to watch because they are only the size of a human thumb, a thumb with attitude. The good thing about them being tiny guards of their food is that they land and become more visible, they lay in wait to chase off competition, but it becomes easier to capture a photo of them and their brilliant green colour. I’ve started logging all of my photos on iNaturalist, and even though the photos above show no ruby throats this little bird is a ruby throated hummingbird, so I’ve been told by other bird watchers. I’m kind of sad the season of flowers, birds and insects is coming to a close so quickly....but I am now reading about how to attract some winter birds. Every season has something new and good to look forward to, both in nature and in life.
If you enjoy photography you can follow the link to VSCO to see the things I enjoy getting photos of around Muskoka, some from our time in northern Ontario, and even a few from when we lived in Windsor many years ago.
