Cuenca Updates: Thursday May 3, 2012

Thursday May 3/12 update

Well, I am truly addicted to the hummers. I have glued the crack in the top of the feeder base with the flowers on it, then glued that to the base below that holds the nectar. The nectar is a 1/3 cane sugar/water solution that they seem to like. Now this little rig doesn’t leak that sticky stuff all over my window track and windowsill.

I have to leave this feeder on the window track as we don’t have enough windowsill on the inside for it to rest.

This is a tricky operation as I have to be ready, focused, and perfectly still when a hummer decides to visit. I have the camera set to Shutter priority at 1,000^th of a second which leaves me with an aperture of about f4, not bad for a clear picture of a fast-moving object if the focus is correct. This involves aiming and zooming the camera at an object, in this case high on the window frame, to estimate the distance of the hummer. I have to depress the shutter button ½ way and hold it continuously while I swing the camera over into position and wait for it to show up. I also have the camera set for a 5 shot burst per second, for 2 seconds, at full resolution. This means I get 10 shots by pushing the shutter button all the way for 2 seconds but then I have to wait an agonizing 10 seconds or so while the camera processes the 10 shots. The other bad part of this is that once I have let go of the shutter button I have lost my focus point and it is hard to refocus without scaring away my little buddy.

I use up a whole battery per session because this involves a lot of waiting and guessing when they may appear. The routine that has been working is to continuously listen for their distinctive cheep cheep cheep cheep to know when they are sitting in a tree or on the wire nearby. When the cheeping stops, I quickly grab my camera, turn it on, focus and zoom on the upper window frame, hold the shutter ½ way and swing into position. The silence means they are usually in flight to a nearby flower for a feast. Maybe one in eight trips is to my phony display of flowers. If they don’t show up within about 15 seconds then they have chosen another flower.

I have got a few shots this morning and I am going to have to be satisfied with those. I went down for lunch and when I came back there was a wasp at my feeder which I never want to encourage so it was necessary to pull the feeder inside and close the window for today. Hopefully they will forget about its location.

I relented and put my display up again and the darn wasp returned, but still only a single wasp so I sent him to his great reward and continued on, being rewarded with 9 awesome shots 3 great videos of the hummer entering our home, what a great thrill.

http://youtu.be/3xqnZ6hLZCQ

http://youtu.be/QLqKDXNRiFo

http://youtu.be/VDWSQdfpb7Y This one is great!

The photos have been Photoshopped to eliminate the cruddy parts of the background.

I now have no doubt whatsoever that I could get them to come right to my hand but the logistics are too hard. I would need another person. I am just grateful for the opportunity to interact with nature.

We were to go to a benefit concert in Banos tonight but the logistics for evening travel there are uncertain and the event is to include a magic show and childrens’ choir. Bella is not fond of magic shows and it is not to be a nice day today so we have decided to forego the trip. We will probably just meet Greg and Leona at Big Kabudas for burgers tonight.

Enjoy the pics and the videos. That was today’s excitement. Hugs to all.