Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Solstice Hummingbird

Just a quick blog note for summer solstice. I took the summer solstice sunrise photo just as the sun came up this morning. It's hard for me to believe how far north the sunrise is in summer compared to winter. I hope to post a composite photo of summer, fall, winter, and spring sunrises in the future, so here is number one.


On this first day of summer, I managed to photograph, through my bird spotting scope, a photo of a hummingbird sitting on her nest. I found the next yesterday more by accident than by design as I heard the bird flying in the same place at the same time of day for the second day in a row and then spent time looking at the tree in my binoculars. Birds on the nest are a real treat at any time but this is only the third time in my life that I have seen a hummingbird nest and the first time I have actually seen the hummingbird on the nest.

9 comments:

Rurality said...

Very nice! I'm going to have to try scope photography.
Karen

robin andrea said...

Beautiful shot of that hummingbird on the nest. Thanks to Rurality for sending her readers over here.
I'll be back!

Anonymous said...

Nice pix! Rurality sent me. It's good to see another nature-ish blog in the world. I'll visit daily.

Ontario Wanderer said...

Thanks for the encouraging comments! Please do not expect something everyday. (Sometimes I am too busy reading Rurality, Swamp4me, etc.)

Jenn said...

That is fantastic! Thank you so much for posting it!

Anonymous said...

What kind of tree? How far up off of the ground? Did you ever see a nest in Kansas?

Ontario Wanderer said...

Hello Anonymous Kansas Reader,

So, do I know you? Is this a test? Yes, I saw my first hummingbird nest in Kansas. It is one of the clearest early memories as my grandmother showed me the nest when I was four years old. Both my grandmother and the nest remain frozen in time in my memory. That nest was in a cedar tree on a limb that was close enough to the ground for a grandmother to lift a four year old up to see.

The bird and nest in the photo are in a tree with many names. Here is is called Manitoba Maple. In Kansas, we called the same tree a Box-elder. The third name I know the tree by is Ashleaf Maple. The Latin name is Acer negundo. Height of this bird & nest I estimate as about 3 metres or 9 feet. I have managed to get close to the nest on a tall stepladder but have not managed to get a good photo as I do not want to disturb the nest and standing on top of a tall ladder with a camera held above one's head does not lend itself to great photos. Perhaps later when the birds are gone I will be able to get a good nest shot.

Anonymous said...

So another grandmother has shown a grandchild an upclose view of a male ruby throated hummer. Had child on left arm and feeder in right hand and the bird circled the feeder checking out each station before studying us. As I rehung the cleaned and filled feeder, exuberant 2 year old called out, "come on 'commingbirds, come and get it!" Lots of hummingbirds this year, but no spotted nests yet.

Maureen said...

I absolutely love the two year old's name for hummingbords!! Comingbirds! That is so sweet.

Ontario Wanderer, thanks for telling me about your very first blog post and this hummer nest - you're lucky to have a bird spotting scope -- and it's a nice photo! looks like this hummingbird has the same design-sense as the one my sister photographed on Vancouver Island -- both have decorated the outside of their nest with lichens. What amazing birds -- that camoflage obviously really works, as you wrote you wouldn't have found the nest if you hadn't heard the bird coming and going. Comingbird, Goingbird ... either way they are some of the most amazing birds.