Hummingbirds

Photos by Bari
Location:  Magnolia, TX
Camera:  Canon EOS 20D

Other birds and wildlife  - deer, etc., can be seen on our Photoshare Page

Photo above is digitally hand painted

Winged Jewel
 
With wings spun of silver and hearts of gold,
These tiny creatures our hearts behold.
With angelic features and colors so bright,
Make even the heaviest heart seem light.
The magical way they flit through the sky,
They appear, then vanish in the blink of an eye.
They're sending a message for us to retrieve,
Anything's possible for those who believe!

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SURPRISING VISITOR!!!   October 3rd, 2011 - what we believe to be a leucistic (white) ruby throated hummingbird.  Our thanks to Bob Sargent, bander from Clay, Alabama, for identifying her for us.   I have never seen one before and she really caught my eye!  Below are some of the photos I've taken - What a delicate, lovely bird to see.

UPDATE:  The last sighting of this lovely hummingbird was the morning of Friday, October 7.  I believe a number of the ruby throated hummingbirds moved on yesterday.  As of Oct 8th, we have only a few hummers still here and I've not seen the lovely white one.

 

ALSO OF INTEREST, Bill Hilton, Jr., Director of  HILTON POND CENTER for Piedmont Natural History, posted a wonderful page with photos and information about white hummingbird sightings from across the country!  We were very pleased to see that he had included our lovely visitor above among the photos.  I hope visitors to my site will take a moment to visit his page http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek111022.html - I know you will enjoy seeing all the special white hummingbirds - albino, leucistos and pieds.  On his website http://www.hiltonpond.org , Bill provides extensive information about ruby throated hummingbirds, to include his group's banding experiences and expeditions to monitor and enjoy these wonderful birds!

 

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Our First sighting for 2011 was at 1:20 p.m., March 12 - a beautiful male Ruby Throat.  During spring and summer we had 10 -15 ruby throated hummingbirds daily visiting our 3 feeders.  As of September 1st, our count started increasing and by September 8, the count of migrating hummers is now 200+ - we put out 11 feeders and are going through as much as 50 cups of sugar water a day.  By October 1st, the count was down to 30-50.  Our last sighting was October

I added a couple of videos of our hummers taken recently to YouTube: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZTMKCegjiw  (starting high numbers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O15WEBuXK0g  (a couple up close)

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Beautiful images of a number of hummingbirds can be seen on this site - Enjoy!  https://sites.google.com/site/colombianaturesite/nature-images/birds

A surprise visitor:  November 6, 2010 we spotted this hummingbird on the feeder.  We are not sure if it was a Rufous or possibly a Broadtail.  He ended up spending the entire winter with us, leaving on March 3rd I presume to return to his home...wherever that may be.  In January and February, we had a second little visitor - a youngster, which stayed a few weeks and then moved on (visitor 2 below)

 

Visitor 1	Visitor 2

More photos of the visitor 1.

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(Click on thumbnails and then "back" to close)

Sharing more of our hummer visitors.  I wish all of them were in perfect focus, but these little ones are so FAST and I love photographing the action!

 

 

 

 

 

	In the rain
numbers at dawn
Rufous???

 

 

 

I was very pleased in July of 2008 when two of my hummingbird  photographs were published in "Matthews Mint Hill Magazine."  The cover photo is by Howard Cheek from bigstockphoto.com.    The other two photos are mine.

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To see the a video taken in 2007 of large numbers of hummingbird visitors during their migration south in the Fall, click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKqp9SvpTT0

Also a video taken while holding the feeder in my hand:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH6P6zJFNxM

 



"White Hummingbird" by Lorraine

 

 

Other Hummingbird Info and Photos:   Becky and Buddy York's albino hummingbird photos "White" leucistic hummingbirds - not albino, but beautiful. Beautiful Hummingbird Poem ~ ~ ~

          

 



A great information site for Ruby Throats is Bill Hilton's great site - Operation Ruby Throat  is a must for all hummer enthusiasts.  Bill does RT banding, and has some fabulous photos - great close-ups that many of us could never get!!

Also, you can sign up to support Operation Ruby Throat at no cost to you; then if you make an on-line purchase from iGive--and they have nearly 700 big name stores to choose from (everything from Lands' End to Barnes & Noble)--a percentage of the purchase price is sent to Hilton Pond Center. 



Our friend, Randy, shared a friend's wonderful hummer
nest and babies... http://community-2.webtv.net/Velpics/HUM/

 

 



A wonderful reference site is www.hummingbirds.net

 



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