The Anna's Hummingbird

Since it's been hanging around so much, I have been able to shoot a lot of pictures of this amazing little creature, and have been able to get a couple of really nice images. Yesterday as it started to snow again, it perched just a couple feet away from the window. Combine that with a 70-200mm zoom and doubler for a total of 400mm, and I was able to capture this image.

That was the first time for me that the bright chin plumage reflected the color just right. Before this, all the pictures made it look like just a darker green. Also note the very small specs of white on her forehead and on the iron bar - those are snowflakes as it had just started to come down again.

This morning, after an overnight snowfall of extremely dry, fine snow of about 5" we then had a thin shell of freezing rain fall. Today, the hummingbird has been perching in one of our huckleberry bushes that has a nice thin coating of ice. Shortly after I took the following picture Wendy went outside to add some warm water to the birdbath to keep it liquid as the juncos have been drinking from it quite a bit. The hummingbird stayed on it's perch until after Wendy passed, and then returned almost as soon as she had closed the door again.

So, those are the best images from this mornings collection. I hope everyone is staying warm!

Stephen