The Hummingbird Page
Ever since Bill met Carol she has been teaching him a thing or two about life. Hey you're not thinking one of those "other" comments are you? Shame on you! Anyway, one such interesting thing about life was the fact that hummingbirds exist just about everywhere in the world, even in areas such as South Georgia! While living in Valdosta Ga. Carol would hang a feeder on the front porch darn near all year long. Magically they would appear, stay for a few seconds then just as quick, leave. It is surprisingly relaxing to watch the little buzzers come in to drink, chase, and chirp.
Bird watching has become one of our favorite things we do during the summer months. We like to sit on
the porch during the weekends, drink our coffee, and watch in amazement at one of natures marvels.
However, lately, just watching hasn't been good enough. You see, sooner or later you get the urge to want to hold one in your hand
or at least try to get as close as possible to them. We got lucky one day that a bird got trapped in the garage.
He was so tired that we were able to hold him for just a few minutes (click on the picture for a closer look). What you will read and
see in the following pages is our attempt at getting close to them, always amazed, always wondering how or why, and always thankful
to have gotten a chance to witness their beauty and charm.
Okay, if you have read this far and have no idea what the heck a hummingbird is, then I suggest you check out some of the web site links just below this paragraph for more information. There are A LOT of web sites out there that will do a much better job of explaining what they are, body composition, migration paths, coloring (they are actually irredecent), number of species, breeding, and much more that we have learned and yet to learn. We are amateurs.
Check these out:
Hummingbirds.netNational Geographic.
Link to organizations devoted to hummingbirds.
Every picture you see on this page is one that Bill or Carol took. Remember the statement earlier about trying to get close to them? Yeah right! Close. Here are some pictures we took trying to get used to the new camera and figuring out how to take stop action shot.
Below are some more taken from the back porch. In the past few years we have had more birds show up. Most web sites and bird knowledgable types will tell you that for every 1 bird you see, there probably 4 more that you don't! We have NEVER had four birds on a feeder at once until 2007. During one week in the fall we refilled this same feeder every day so there must have been a lot of birds! Enjoy the pictures.
Coming soon!
Wow! we have NEVER seen so many birds in one place! Right in the middle of the migration path to Mexico
and Central America is Rockport Texas. After 10 years of wanting to do so, we FINALLY got to go to the annual hummingbird festival in
Rockport and took hundreds of pictures! Really cool! When the picture album gets up and running, we will post some of the pictures
we took during that trip.
Below is a sneak peek picture. The story behind this one is we got caught in an early afternoon thundershower and the homeowner who's property we were visiting was kind and let us stay under his screened in porch until the storm passed. The picture is of a bird bathing in the rain! He was just flapping his wings and preening the whole time! What a sight! Click on the picture for a closer view.
