This guy has been coming around, landing on the fence and then hopping up and down making a frightful racket and then jumping onto the feeder. It’s pretty humorous when it happens.
Click image to see full size.
Bully Of Hummertown
The Hummingbird has taken up station on the crook that holds the feeder. Previously he had been flying in, feeding and flying off and would return every 10-20 minutes. Now he is camped out protecting the feeders from any other hummer that tries to get some food.
On The Wing
The Honeypot
Once the feeders have been up for awhile you get a sense of which of the perches they’ll tend to favorite. This allows me to setup the camera on a tripod, take aim and wait with the wired remote in hand.
This was shot with the flash and using the 70-300G lens
This was shot with no flash using the 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens
And this was with the 500mm Reflex and no flash.
Backyard Birding Report – Aug. 16th, 2009
Put the feeders out this weekend and we have our first Hummingbird of the season.
Click the image to see a larger version.
Squabble Of Wrens
Cynthia and I were in the TV room when we heard a commotion outside the front window. We looked out and spotted an adult Carolina Wren herding 3-4 fledglings through the front garden. After a bit they moved past the window and out of sight. I grabbed my camera and threw on the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 lens.
When I opened the front door I was surprised to see the mamma wren on the Bottlebrush tree right next to the porch.
Right after I snapped her picture she chittered loudly and flew off only to be replaced by one of the fledglings
Who soon departed only to be replaced by another
And this went on as the family continued moving from one side of the front garden to the other. It was a sight to see and noisy! The adult Wrens were fussing at the babies and at us as we watched and the babies were making the usual “feed me” noises…
The Glass Tower @ 1400 Smith St
Took advantage of a street closure to setup a tripod and take these shots with my recently acquired Sigma 10mm f/2.8 fisheye. Click either image to see larger size.
It will always be the Enron building to me.
Road Trip To Marfa – Day 2
Day 2 in Marfa was spent mostly relaxing. The Allen Oldies Band had an afternoon gig playing on the back of a trailer that was hauled into the common area near the train tracks that is used on the weekends for the farmers market. David Beebe and Allen Hill had gone over to the Marfa Public Radio station to interview Allen Hill and promote the mid afternoon show as well as the evening show in Alpine and the show on Saturday at Padres.
The promotion did get quite a few people out to the afternoon show which lasted about 45 minutes.
The next show was in Alpine, about 30 minutes away from Marfa. Scheduled to start at 10:00 pm the band was planning to head over there around 4:30 for a 5:00 pm sound check. This meant about 5 hours of downtime plus the show which would run about 4 hours and then the breakdown and trip back to Marfa.
I opted to stay in town and skip the festivities. There’s still the Saturday night show at Padres and a lunchtime show on Sunday so I felt I could give this one a miss.
Walked around town and shot some pics and hung out with some of the band wives who also opted to skip the Alpine leg of the tour.
In the above picture you can see the Marfa Courthouse in the distance. I was able to climb to the top of the dome and put together this panorama of the City of Marfa with Main St. in the center.