Anna's Hummer Baby 6279 - a photo on Flickriver

            I went out this afternoon in search of ... anything! I wasn't going to be choosy. I got a pretty good shot of a Western Fence Lizard, but then nothing. I walked more than five miles and then I decided that the flowers were particularly pretty in the Heather Farm Garden.

I was looking at the rhododendrons because I wanted to spend my spare time looking up spelling rhododendron, and there in the center at eye-level (!!!) was a Anna's Hummingbird nest with one chick. As I came closer with my cell phone (had to send this to my kids who don't believe I know how to send a text yet), his beak opened, and he followed me by twisting in the nest. I didn't want to spend any more time than necessary so I took up watch for mama for a half an hour, but she never showed. That is not particularly unusual. Mama needs all the food she can get, too.

I shot about 100 images of the baby, and got two, this one and one with the mouth open. I liked this one. As I sat there, a couple of things came to mind. First, this was even smaller than the usual hummingbird nest. I don't think it was more than two inches across. The other thing was, where was the second chick? There are almost always two, and I worried that being so low to the ground (4.5 feet), maybe something got to the second one. Or maybe this sibling was particularly unloving and kicked the sibling out of the nest. But, I want to be positive so I'm going with the mother making this nest particularly small, too small even for two tiny eggs or at least two tiny chicks.

Three weeks ago, I hung a full hummingbird feeder, and for the second time, I had to throw out the nectar. That told me that the hummers were getting food from all the flowers we have in bloom right now, they were "gettin' busy" and nesting. The problem was whether or not they would ever build a nest at under 30 feet (the last three I got were in alder trees, and the only good thing about that was that I could spell "alder"). So, I was pleasantly surprised to find this guy down to earth so to speak. Though I don't want to advertise their location, and I don't want to bother them too much, I have to take my 5 foot wife there tomorrow. She may never have another chance to get a shot of hummingbird chicks. Besides, this was taken at about 10 feet, telephoto, and a flash which the kid didn't seem to mind AND it gave me catch light that brought the little guy to life!

Taken in: United States / California / Contra Costa (show map)

Taken on: March 16, 2017

Sets appears in: • Anna's Hummingbirds • MY Favorites

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Camera: Canon PowerShot SX50 HS, f/5.6, 1/200 sec, 32.5mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Focal Length:	32.5mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	ACDSee Pro 6
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