Extracting nectar from a tubular trumpet vine flower isn’t easy, even if you have a very long bill.
This is the most productive portion of my trumpet vine on the side of my house. I don’t photograph hummingbirds at my feeder, so this vine has always been my go-to source for hummers in a more natural setting. But photographing hummingbirds at the vine has been far more difficult than usual this summer, for three reasons.
- This year the vine was heavily damaged by a late spring frost, so it didn’t flower until much later than usual. No flowers, no hummers. Until a few days ago I didn’t think there’d be any flowers to speak of all summer. But it’s finally making up for lost time.
- I have far fewer hummers in my yard this summer than I remember ever having before (possibly because of the damage to the vine?). At most there have been two pairs of Black-chinned Hummingbirds coming to my feeders and one of the females has staked out my trumpet vine as her personal flower patch and she simply will not allow any of the others to approach it. Which certainly limits the possibilities for this bird photographer. I’ve still never seen a male at the vine, though they use my nearby feeder every day. She’s got those guys intimidated.
- It’s been insufferably hot around here. Two days ago Salt Lake City hit 109° F., shattering the all-time previous record by 2°. It’s been so hot that any hummers feeding on the trumpet vine nearly always stay on the back side of the vine, in the deep morning shade where I can’t photograph them.
But a couple of days ago I discovered that if I get out there right after sunrise, when it’s still relatively cool, the dominant female hummer sometimes feeds on ‘my side’ of the vine where there’s light and I have a chance at decent photos. The light is usually dappled and filtered through trees but it’s infinitely better than on the shaded side, so it’s the best chance I have.
These first eight photos are part of a series of short bursts I took over a period of perhaps eight seconds in early morning two days ago as the dominant female was feeding on a trumpet vine flower. The filtered light was only marginal but I still think they turned out pretty well.
Image techs for most of these photos are at or near 1/2000, f/5.6, ISO 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc
She’s most interested in the top flower. Parts of two black ants are visible on the bottom two flowers. One of them will become more prominent in later photos. The other one will disappear.
She begins to dive into the flower.
Her feet are about to land on and grasp the flower below but…
she seems to instinctively know that the flowers probably can’t support her weight so she continues to beat her wings as she attempts to feed.
Apparently she couldn’t reach the nectar so she backed out and…
tried again.
This time she went so far into the flower that her beating wings began to strike the flower’s petals.
So she took a chance that the flower would support her weight and stopped beating her wings. It worked. Almost half of her disappeared within the flower. This is why hummingbirds have such long bills.
I don’t have a dramatic photo to conclude this series that’s any good. After she was through feeding, she backed out of the flower, turned 90° in a millisecond, and…
flew off. But the photo was soft.
This is my setup for photographing hummers at the trumpet vine from my dilapidated side deck that I almost never use. I have almost an hour in the very early morning with dappled light on the vine while I’m sitting in the shade, coffee within reach.
Even if hummers don’t show up, and they often don’t, there are worse ways to spend my time.
Ron
Some “incidentals” while I was attempting to photograph hummingbirds the last few days.
The trumpet vine flowers are crawling with pollinators, including several species of bees, wasps and ants. For some reason I never see butterflies on the vine.
A Western Kingbird that landed on my friend and neighbor Shane’s nearby tree. I only include the photo because it’s the first Western Kingbird I’ve ever seen in my neighborhood.
This is Bandito paying me a visit. I’ve never seen him on the side deck before so the anthropomorphist in me likes to think he just came by to tell me good morning. In reality he was probably just checking on my whereabouts before going off to steal more of my bird seed.
Neighbor Shane and I have both been seeing a large rat in our yards so I placed a rat trap beneath my deck (where squirrels don’t go). Several mornings ago while I was photographing hummers, I heard the trap go off.
The photo below is of the dead male rat in the trap. It isn’t gory but if you don’t want to see it, scroll no further. You’ve been warned.
He’s the biggest, baddest, fattest rat I’ve ever seen around here. He’s now fertilizing the back of my garden.
Magnificent! I always loved the humming birds during the citrus blossom season. Love these photos – even the rat. We always saw rats in our neighbor’s yard when we lived on the Jordan River as kids. The woman who lived there left plenty of stuff out for them to feed on. Interesting that they never bothered my dad’s big garden.
Judy, I live near the Jordan River so that may be the source of the rats. Two years ago I had a rat problem for the first time so I took some “preventative measures”. Last year I didn’t see a single rat so when I spotted this guy it got my juices going.
Although I will say, I’ve never noticed any evidence of rat damage in my garden.
That punchline at the end. Thank you for a much needed laugh.
I’d say that’s the size of Templeton before he gorged himself to the size of a woodchuck at the end of Charlotte’s Web.
Also thank you for capturing a moment in time with a hummingbird. These little guys flit to and fro so fast it’s hard to catch all the little details when they feed. But here I can observe all I want at the beauty of both the bird and the flower.
Amy, that “punchline” is pretty accurate. He was one big rat. I couldn’t believe how heavy he felt on the shovel.
I love the photos and the narrative.
109 is brutal. It has been hot in Fort Collins, but thankfully not that hot. Hanging out on the deck just after sunrise is the perfect way to beat that heat.
Thanks, Bill. Most of my back yard is shaded by big trees for over half the morning but that blazing sun hits my side deck just after 9 AM. It’s intolerable after that.
Thank you so much for this. I love learning so much from you, and your patience, catching things that I’ve not seen in any of the photos in the magazines. Also, thank you for the Amaranth seeds from a few years ago. Nothing last year, but for some reason they started coming up just a couple of weeks ago and are really taking off.
Thanks, Cheryl. I’m glad you’re enjoying the amaranth.
Beautiful hummer photos. I am so jealous that you get them coming to your garden. I live in a low-hummer zone.
Thanks, Joanne. It’s been pretty “low-hummer zone” around here this summer too.
This is a humm-dinger of a post! Trumpet vine covered (finally) in beautiful flowers and a gorgeous little hummer come to show off her skill in nectar consumption … her dive attack proving again where there’s a will there’s a way. I appreciate every single shot in the series, even (perhaps especially) that “soft” getaway pic, her determination so apparent in her form.
I’m surprised you don’t have kingbirds on the regular there, I see them perched in a neighbor’s tree quite often (which also surprises me).
My Scrub Jay has just appeared in the birdbath outside my sunroom, meaning it’s time for me to get his peanuts ready! 😂🪶
Chris, “humm-dinger” – I like that. Very appropriate, especially with second m.
Once you get out of the city, Western Kingbirds are pretty common around here. But until a couple of days ago I’d never seen one in my neighborhood.
Glad I got to my email relatively early today. What a treat to see your post — and your huge trumpet vine! The hummingbird series is wonderful. I can even sense her feistiness through the computer. The bee shot is pretty special, with those grains of pollen on its little butt. Good to see that Bandito is in fine fettle and came by to say, “Good morning.” That’s one hell of a rat too. We’ve had a couple of huge ones in our neighborhood; the new Red Tail in the area seems to be a slacker.
Hope you get a bit of a break from the heat soon and that your tomatoes are none the worse for wear. Was in Las Vegas last week helping my friend and it was in the one-teens the whole time — dry heat or not, 115F is effing HOT for this SoCal girl. 🥵
Marty, years ago I was in Vegas in August visiting Shannon when the temps were over 115° when the power went out (it was a brownout that effected southern Cal and southern NV.) No electricity meant no AC and no gas pumps working anywhere so I couldn’t even get out of town and head home. I was stuck and it was MISERABLE!
That reminds me, my power went out at 5:50 pm Sunday when it was still well over 100 here. Fire in Tanner park caused the outage (there’s a substation right there) and the power was out for more than 4 hours. Not at all fun.
I’ll bet!
What’s. Beautiful series of Hummers this morning. And the story was quite interesting too about the female takeover of the best part of the Vine for viewing. Now I understand much better. You’re set up for taking these photographs and it is such a pleasure to look at them.
“Now I understand much better.”
Good to know, Eloise. It takes me a lot of words to explain it all but I think it’s worth it.
Enjoyed the pictures and the comments.
Good. Thanks, Laurie.
She’s adorable – how something so adorable can be so feisty with the other hummers…!😄 I love the whorl arrangement of her leg/foot feathers while she’s all the way inside the flower. And those quiet wings smooth along her body. Beautiful!
A nice setup for your morning coffee – the shade and dappled light certainly don’t convey the awful heat you have been having.
“the shade and dappled light certainly don’t convey the awful heat you have been having.”
And now we have monsoonal weather in the forecast for the next week, at least. I’m in the process of staking my (tall) amaranth plants against the wind. Not much I can do about any hail. Thanks, Carolyn.
Often enough I see bumblebees crawling into trumpet vine flowers, but seeing that hummingbird halfway in was a new one. That was a great photo, and my favorite of the group, although hummingbird feet certainly are charming!
Shoreacres, “charming” is the perfect word for hummingbird feet.
Yes, a whopper of a Rat. Never say never as to where squirrels will go; had 2 nighttime Flying Squirrels come down our fireplace chimney, then into our house this past winter (we duplicated Chevy Chasse’s “Christmas Vacation”) within a week apart–first issue of this kind in 49 years! Set up a Stealth Camera to catch rodent and other visitors cleaning up a seed buffet at night at your bird feeder, you will be surprised at the variety of critters as your fat Rat is an example of being well fed.
Donald, I know that mice also eat seed below my feeder. I’ve trapped two of them so far (with the traps in places where birds and squirrels can’t get to).
Great shots all, but I like 3 and 5 best. “Nectaring” had to look that
up to see if legit and sure enough it is. But then I should have expected such from an ex biology and science teacher. 🙂
Fun post Ron. Oh and yes we have trapped a significant
number of pack rats through the spring and early summer.
Thanks, Everett. The word “nectaring” has always seemed a little awkward to me, not sure why. So I don’t use it very often.
What a lovely series to start this morning! Love the hummer and the beautiful color of the trumpet vine. And of course, you have not lost your ultimate skill as a high school teacher: always knowing that what fascinates people most is usually the most cringe-inducing. As our friend Gerri always said, it’s “the fascination with the abomination” that keeps ’em in their seats!!! So the rat was the perfect conclusion. How many times did I wonder what my students were so focused on as they came to my class from yours—–and it was always something that had totally grossed them out!!! You haven’t changed a bit.
Golden beets ready for supper tonight! Can’t wait.
“you have not lost your ultimate skill as a high school teacher: always knowing that what fascinates people most is usually the most cringe-inducing”
You’ve got me pegged on that one, Sue! Made me laugh, big time.
I hope you enjoy the golden beets. The ones I’ve had have been very good.
Beautiful and fun series! Glad you were able to figure out a time/view to capture this hummer!
Seasonal variations in weather sure do create problems for various critters. Here the bull snakes are out for the earlier nestlings rather than the 2nd hatch of robins later in the summer – I take exception to that…….
We’ve had some nasty heat of late also – UGH! Catching a break for a few anyway.
Impressive rat! Fortunately ( or not) we just have pack rats..
Under “joys of ageing I’m trying to sort out some “sporadic Afib”…..sighhhh
Judy, I saw that Miles City was 115° two days ago. That’s unheard of in MT.
Good luck with the AFib. At least that’s one thing I don’t have. Yet.
Wonderful series, Ron. A beautiful way to start the day for you and your readers.
Thanks, Brett.
Ron, thanks for these gorgeous shots, and for checking in now and then. It was even nice to see your dead rat! Blessings, friend, and stay cool and safe when the temps climb like that.
Noel, thanks for appreciating (or at least tolerating) the rat photo. I doubt everyone will. I’m just glad to get rid of him.
Oh, she is beautiful. The little feet!! Love to see those bugs, too!
I’m glad you enjoyed the photos, Evelyn. Thanks.
Really enjoyed the shots and the commentary. Thanks for the persistence.
Thank you, Burrdoo.
Beautiful hummer series. Love the composition of that first one.
I am impressed that you are able move that rig into position quick enough to get the shots. Well done.
“I am impressed that you are able move that rig into position quick enough to get the shots.”
Thanks, Michael. Occasionally I succeed. Often I don’t.