Shadows and Light...

My real camera is in the shop so a kind friend loaned me her

camera so I could take some photos of a few new sculptures i've been working on.

Luckily she has a few cameras and this one on loan is exactly like my old camera 

so I know how to work all it's bells and whistles.

When I got home from town the light wasn't quite right in my studio

but I was intrigued by the birds out the window who

flitter and flutter about the bare branches.

Played with a bit of editing tools and

I just thought I'd share their sweet little forms in the bones of a winter tree...

The 'easy' birds...

You here them everywhere...in the towns, on the beach, in the jungle but...

not all birds are easy to capture in pictures.

I have been taking photos of 'easy' birds for many years.

The hummingbirds who will allow you to be within a few feet of them,

water fowl when you have food, and some birds with a zoom lens but I'm

concluding that I need a much more powerful telephoto lens to capture

the more elusive birds in trees.

Of the many photos I tried to get of some birds in Nicaragua all

but a few turned out. 

These were the 'easy birds...

Seems like the Nicaraguan Grackle is everywhere...

Tom and I were calling it the 'alarm clock bird' since it was always the first one

up in the morning making all kinds of interesting sounds.

I think I counted at least 5 different calls and songs from this 

gorgeous jet black bird...

the female is a taupe brown colour but with the same striking eyes...

On a boat trip on Lake Nicaragua one day, we witnessed a not so easy bird to capture pictures of but 

it's nests were very easy to spot...

These are colonies of Montezuma Orpendolas...that's one with the bright yellow tail in the photo above. They also make some crazy sounds.

They nest in these grassy 2 foot long sock looking nests and there

 were probably a hundred in one tree.

Kind of like bird condos!

this is a short video of the call...pretty impressive when you here about 30 of them calling!

The white egrets were numerous too....along the shore line mostly...

 and near this cattle trough...

This little kiskadee was hanging out there as well...

I was lucky one morning while on a rocky shore on the beach to have this handsome fella

allow me to take some nice shots...

The one bird I could watch for hours are the brown pelicans.

Gliding in formation like an aviary air force, tipping their wings on the waves...

Diving like arrows at the last minute.

 Again a not so easy thing to capture without the right equipment.

They love to hang around the fishing boats too...

But the easiest birds to photograph on my trip were this pair of ducks that

lived at one of the hotels we stayed at...

 The male was super friendly and let you pick him up but the female was a bit more cautious...

So a nod to the ones who aren't so shy!!

Wordless Wednesday...

Sometimes you get lucky...

It's that time of year around here when I go through white sugar 

like a candy crazed toddler.

No, not for me but for those tiny miracles of the bird world...

The hummingbirds.

I have 3 feeders right now as opposed to one during the winter.

The Anna's hummingbird sticks around all year and I keep them fed

through rain and snow and sleet and hail.

Then around the beginning of March, the Rufus hummers show up.

These guys are small but mighty and VERY territorial.

They chase the Anna's away constantly and chase each other and 

anything else that gets in their way.

Capturing their picture can be quite challenging.

Sometimes they play peek-a-boo...

Sometimes they just become a fiery, whirling blur...

Or you catch a bit of those magical light defracting grating feathers...

Maybe you'll get a glimpse of the power of those tiny wings that can beat up to 80 times a second!!

Think about that...can you count to 80 in a second?!

And then there's the moment you get lucky!

Just clicking the shutter button at the right time...

To catch a shot of these small wonders is such a treat...

They are so busy just trying to stay alive...sucking back all of that nectar to keep

up their strength to fly up to speeds of 55km /hr or 35km/hr backwards!

To keep that minuscule heart beating at rates of up to 1,260 beats per minute is a lot of work!

Their wee lungs can take up to 250 breaths a minute...

And then at night they sleep...deep sleep...torpor it's called.

 A type of hibernation that allows them to conserve massive amounts of energy

by lowering their body temperature and almost shutting down their kidneys.

They can lose 10% of their body weight at night.

Then at first light in the morning, you hear them...that delightful buzzing sound and they're at it again

So here's to these, the smallest of bird species, 

 for sure the busiest, 

certainly one of the most entertaining

and definitely one of the sweetest!