![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/rufous-hummingbird-6324-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"rufous-hummingbird-6324-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nI think of this hummer as my friend but like most friends he seriously tried my patience at times.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n This is the Rufous Hummingbird I photographed on Antelope Island a week ago today. You’ve seen ‘him’ before because I posted two photos of him in the recent past but these three are new to my blog.<\/p>\n This flower cluster was more immature than most he was feeding on that morning so only a few of the individual flowers have opened and sent up their stamens. But there’s several slightly more mature and smaller flowers at the base of the cluster so that’s where the ever-resourceful hummer was getting his nectar.<\/p>\n As a result his bill is partially shaded by the flower cluster between his bill and the sun but I don’t think that’s an image-killer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/5000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n He often had to bury his entire long bill in the flower to get at the nectar so sometimes his face was almost entirely covered with pollen. Sadly I didn’t get any sharp shots of him with that much pollen on his face. Sharp shots of hummers in flight are hard, especially with a moderate breeze blowing both bird and flowers around.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Here he’s flying in place as he’s deciding which tiny flower to try next. His decision-making process was usually very quick but it often gave me an extra few milliseconds to lock focus on him before he darted to his next feeding position. That’s not much extra time but sometimes it was just enough.<\/p>\n I grew quite fond of this little guy in the short time I spent with him that morning. I waited at the bee plant for quite a while hoping that hummers would show up but he was the only one that eventually did. And he left and returned to the bee plant several times.<\/p>\n For that I’m grateful, even though he usually seemed hell-bent to put the kibosh on my attempts at getting sharp shots of him. I can’t help thinking he was deliberately toying with me.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I think of this hummer as my friend but like most friends he seriously tried my patience at times.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/rufous-hummingbird-6150-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"rufous-hummingbird-6150-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/rufous-hummingbird-6145-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"rufous-hummingbird-6145-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n