As of this blog, I have already went through seventeen pounds of sugar in the hummingbird feeders; the Bullock's Orioles account for a large portion of the homemade nectar; the young Orioles are learning to eat at the feeders, too.  The hummingbirds will be laying soon and the females are especially aggressive because of the increase in competition.  At six this morning there was a male and female Rufous on the feeder by my bedroom sharing a feeder together, and six other hummers vying for a spot!  Sitting outside with my birds, the temperature was sixty-five.  Yet in the heat of the afternoon here in the Wind River Canyon you would wonder where the hummingbirds went.  Before dark tonight the feeders will be busy with three different species of hummingbirds.

The regular hummingbird visitors to the Wind River Canyon are easy to spot, or rather they spot you.  This male Rufous Hummingbird is a real stunner, but what makes the gorget (his throat feather display) so unusual is the early morning light.  The gorget is very difficult to photograph well, it is very much like shooting pictures of a mirror.  So the best time to photograph hummingbirds is before the sun gets to their highly reflective feathers. 

The ISO is higher for this photo than I like, the "grain" is part of the charm I guess.  Compare his gorget to others in my website and you will see how feathers like this can change in color depending on the time of day.  During the afternoon his gorget is a brilliant orange. 

Same equipment as always, and my trusty Giottos tripod.  1/100 @ f/10....this was an early morning experiment shot on July 14th; he is putting on quite the display, and I am less than ten feet away! 

Next week I will reveal one of my magical secrets to getting the animals in the Wind River Canyon to trust me the way they do. 

Rufous Hummingbird, Wind River Canyon