The Swarm

"What cha' looking at, Porter?"

Oh yeah. Our continual swarm of hummingbirds!

Sometimes they will sit together and eat.

But, then they all jump and scatter.

Porter finds all of this intriguing.

I count eight in this photo.

Ever since the cold weather broke a few weeks ago, we've seen a constant swarm of hummers.

They look like bees swarming a hive!

They are drinking us out of sugar, but I love watching them fly around, fight with each other and generally be cute. So they can swarm us all they want!

I see nine in this photo.

They've even found funny places to perch to await their turn. You can see one on the fence in the above photo, and this one is seated on Chris' tomato cage.

 Happy Hummingbird Season!

Three is a crowd

This big guy showed up the other day on our hummingbird feeder.

He's actually a butterfly, right? The biggest I've ever seen.

And then, this lady showed up.

And then they drank together.

But were still a little unsure of each other.

And then this terrible little guy showed up. 

The little lady had to fly up top, but the other two stuck to it. 

So here's proof that three really is a crowd.

Humming Along

 Hey, I'm a hummingbird.

I can fly and sit at the same time.

I have a pretty back too.

I have big eyes so I can what's coming like mean wasps.

I have a pretty red throat.

And, I can fly right at you!

I know these are a little blurry, but I love them. You can see their little faces (yea, they are different birds.) And, I used my tripod so I wasn't having to move the camera all around. The only problem was trying to focus on the little guys and not the feeder or the fence. But practice makes perfect, and as long as I keep my feeder full, I'm sure to get lots of practices this summer. 

After Five Long Years...

After five years of marriage, I deserve a treat. I deserve a treat that I had been talking about for a while, but it was quite a splurge. I deserve a brand new, fancy camera!!

Christopher and my five-year anniversary is actually June 11th. However, two weeks ago we were traveling to my folks' farm for a long weekend, and Chris really wanted me to have the camera to play with there. (See the results here!). Chris had been secretly stashing away money for my present, and Wednesday before we left on the plane, he told me to set aside two hours of the day. He told me we had to run an errand, and when we got in the car, he said we were going to get my anniversary present. 

Usually, I'm very traditional about presents. I like presents on the day of the event; I don't like any hints; I LIKED to be surprised. But when we pulled up to Wolf Camera, I knew I'd be okay with getting my present early. 

I was really happy with the guy we worked with, and he listened to what I wanted. I know there is plenty of discussion between Cannons and Nikons, so we'll leave that alone. I decided on the NikonD5000 because it had high-definition video (really wanted this feature because my little point-and-shoot has video, and I use it all the time), vibration-reduction interchangeable lenses, lots of automatic scene-specific settings, and the swivel screen is nice if you're taking photos of very low items and very high items--the latter is especially good for short folks like me. 

So far, I am really loving it. I'm pretty much sticking to the different automatic modes on it, but along with our purchase, we got several free camera classes. I'll definitely be taking part in those.

 

The 55mm lens came with it, and we also got the 200mm lens.

Here are a few more of my favorite shots so far.  

Thanks, Chris!