Flowers Hummies Like

Discussion in 'Photography and Art' started by Dana09, Oct 17, 2009.

  1. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    One of my favourite things to do is filming hummingbirds and then taking out frames for still shots. Sometimes I can find only one frame that makes for a good still shot in minutes of film because they move so fast. One would just have to be plain lucky, I think, to get any good still photos from snap shots tho when they are slowed down in the summer heat it is more possible.
    So, I thought I'd share some of my pics of where hummingbirds like to dine, here.

    First they like to taste the wild currants that bloom early in spring in the forest and the cultivated ones in gardens. If there is one currant floret in bloom there is a hummingbird on it! The beginning of April is when we start to see them more. The Anna's Hummingbird stays all winter now, even last year.

    Then there's the Quince Japonica, this pink one being a plant I brought a piece of with me from Delta 25 yrs ago.
    And then comes the Honeysuckle, with hummy looking like a jewel flashing light.

    D
     

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  2. orpheus

    orpheus Active Member

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    I have attached two photos our ruby-throated hummingbirds feeding from a native honey suckle, and from a Gasteria (native to Africa) which blooms every summer here in Massachusetts. The Gasteria spends the winter indoors.
     

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  3. SanDiegoLarry

    SanDiegoLarry Member

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    Those are great shots. Never considered taking movies and then grabbing frames. Nice! What kind of cameras / settings are you using, and then what software to get the screen grabs?

    (Or are you using real film? The OP sounds like they are using real film.)
     
  4. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    Hi,
    Yes, do!
    The more the merrier.
    I'm going to post more too as time goes on.

    No, it's a HDD camera, Everio. I don't know any other way of describing the process and that's just how it looks when working it.
    A program comes with the camera.
    This one is a hybrid and is capable of taking stills also but just not poss too often with the hummies.
    But I got some good ones & maybe an ear shot! Need opinions on that one.

    I just realized that i have no red ones feeding on flowers, only bathing - later.
    The red ones are really zippy early in spring and hard to get even with filming.

    Many cameras available , this may not be the best. I've heard there are more powerful zooms, if one has the bucks that is. So, for me, more stealth with hummies to get closer instead!

    D
     
  5. SanDiegoLarry

    SanDiegoLarry Member

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    Oh, the Everio, that's a nice little JCV Camcorder.

    The stuff you are getting with it looks just fantastic. Much better than anything I ever got of a hummingbird with my SLR.
     
  6. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    Yes, so much more fun with the camcorder and one gets to see things not possible with the naked eye when things get slowed down to our speed, like the turn of the head when hummy quickly sticks it under the flowing water while bathing.

    I bought my first camera when I semi-retired a few yrs ago and have loved using it. I got the film sort first but this HDD is great tho now I need a better computer to make good movies with all the gathered material. It was ok to start with but slowed down as I added files...'twas ever thus.

    three more here today.
    couldn't resist posting the metallic one with lonicera

    mallows winter over here and hummy quite likes it. Gotta find one with a hummy attached to it.

    and I never knew til this year that they like azaleas & rhodos but it may have been a young one.
     

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  7. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    Aha, there's the one with hummy and mallow.
    And one of hummy with Lunaria, Money Plant and a titch of pollen on its beak.

    I'm trying to list them in seasonal order.
    It could also be done in order of their favourites but sometimes that's hard to know as not all is in bloom at once and sometimes there is not much choice.
    Way more fun to try catching good shots of them with their flowers than using sugar water feeders. But practice and patience are required to get good clips.

    The last one is dame's rocket, biennial, blooming starting in spring and all summer with more blooms if deadheaded.
    Colours from seed saved plants are unpredictable and are often pale. Hummy seems to like the darker ones best. They are lightly scented in the evening, nice.

    D
     

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    Last edited: Nov 18, 2009
  8. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    They surprised me last year when I noted them feeding at the distant leeks in the veggies from an upstairs window, a great vantage point tho distant. That's when I wish for more zoom!
    Red hot poker is a perennial favourite.
    and they go for the rose campion.

    D
     

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  9. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    Fustrating to get so many almost clear shots.
    I suppose htat there are programs to 'fix' them but it makes the clearer ones all the more dear now.
    And some are not with flowers....

    The yard is safe enough for them to relax and catch a bit of shut eye for a few seconds at a time, peeking out, ever on guard for their flowers.

    Some cool shots are possible with the ability to stop the film and so the fly-by was noticed.

    And hummy liked to cosey up to the ribbon once it was decided that it was in fact not another living competitor for space in the garden and did not need to be poked at and attacked.

    D
     

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  10. SUNRIZE

    SUNRIZE Active Member

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    Great shots!!!!

    When I lived in Colorado I put up 2 feeders one in the front yard and one in the back yard I had a great view of the 1 in the front I would look out my front window and see a dozen of those beauties swarming and fighting over the feeder but since moving here to Florida I have only been able to attract 1 little bird and it didn't hang around long. ...very sad.. :(
     
  11. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    Aww,
    I'd miss them too. They sure give my eye and camera hand a work-out and hopefully have improved my eye hand co-ordination!
    They stay here now over the winter and I have been seeing them for 3 yrs in a row.
    Below are some pics taken last week when hummy came to visit the Salvia Elegans which I had covered over to protect it from the rains so that it will last as long as possible. Now I've moved it into a more sheltered place to extend the feeding possibilities as long as I can as the Jasmine Nudiflorum is not yet in bloom tho the Abelia continues and mallows are flushing again now too, so there is still nectar to be found there and the fuchsias continue to bloom.

    D
     

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  12. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    One year I had a hummy come for the epi x's but never again. A shame as they drip nectar.
    The linaria, of course grows in the ground and seems to be very attractive to the wee fliers.
    I tried a couple of cuphea baskets and they did well for the hummies too.

    D
     

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  13. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    Funny that they like the pink but not Heavenly Blue morning glories.

    I did not manage to get a shot of them pollinating the sour cherry flowers but I could hear them and see their shapes thru the poly as they visited.

    Beak smackingly good apparently too !

    D
     

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  14. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    The Agastache is one of the very most popular with hummy.
    The fuchsia is always a hit, especially for breakfast on a summer's morn.
     

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  15. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    There are 2 types of agastache sold around here, one more orange than the other. Hummy likes both equally.
    They seem a sort of hyssop, a plant hummies like.

    And there is also a plant called the humming bird mint, more pink yet with a broad leaf and another sort of hyssop I think, with the bee in it below.
     

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  16. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    hummies love the Buddlea and sit guard on it on the clothes lines which seem just the right size for them.
    The scarlet runner is also a hit and my beans were so pollinated this year.
    They got mixed with each other this summer.
     

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  17. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    Sold to me as a dwarf variety of Buddlea, I soon found out it was a troll version instead !
    SO I moved it to the back fence where I grow it to overhang lower growing things.
    It did very well in '08 but suffered some after the winter of '08'09.

    And so, the scarlet runners found room to grow up into it where seed pods await me now.
     

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  18. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    Yes, they do call it the butterfly bush, don't they.

    I found a plant this summer that hummies love like crazy, often the first stop.

    It is called giant catnip but tho the plant itself did not become a giant in a hanging basket its flowers sure did and I wonder if that's the giant part.
    Hummy was thrilled with it on a daily basis as long as it flowered most of the summer.
    And the ever present f. magellan which is still blooming now, in Nov. is always visited here as long as it is in bloom tho this was in summer.
     

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  19. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    Nemesia was also a hit this summer. When I brought it home bits broke off so I tried rooting them and found out just how easily they root! Tough and blooming even after drought and foliage colour change.
    Monarda is a renowned hummy attractor.
     

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  20. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    If I had to choose only one to grow for hummies, this might be it, as the pineapple sage, salvia elegans, was one was most fiercely guarded and fought over.
    It has a foliar scent more like cooked pineapple rather than raw.
     

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  21. SanDiegoLarry

    SanDiegoLarry Member

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    That is a beautiful series, love the action!
     
  22. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    Hi Larry,
    Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you can see action in the stills. I see things while searching for good bits in the video clips I never see with my eyes as it happens so fast!
    As when they turn their heads under the fall of water in the fountain, not visible to my naked eye but when I can slow the action down to individual frames, visible. And then to be able to snap a photo of that still is great but not always easy to find the right one to convey the action, and or in focus!
    Always puts a smile on my face to see them and work the film. A joy in a sometimes trying world.

    But Holy Heaps of Heliotrope !!!
    I am growing lots of patience in this gardening venture as I post these pics using my slow dial-up system which often cuts the connection completely while negotiating the process.
    If I wasn't getting it all more organized for something I wouldn't bother!

    So glad to find one other enthusiast on this coast !!!
    Wow! Larry, we are rare birds indeed ! Shocking to me. ROFL.
    A very particular kind of nut I feel now....I do it 'cause I love it.
    Errr, that oughta be birds of a feather I suppose.

    Thks again,
    later,
    D
     
  23. SanDiegoLarry

    SanDiegoLarry Member

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    Glad to encourage you Dana09!

    Wow, it sounds as if dealing with the dialup is the most excruciating part of the whole process.

    I still love the idea of using video to capture hummingbird stills, but still don't have a video camera to do this with. Not much into making movies, though this would be a good use.

    Oddly, I was much more impressed when I saw hummingbirds back in Connecticut. There it was something of an event to have one in my garden. Here in San Diego they are everywhere. However, with their size and speed I almost never get a good look at one.

    I do have a fair number of flowers in the yard that the hummers like, but I'll admit that this wasn't really intentional - the birds and I just like the same plants. Hummers are very attracted to aloe flowers and bird of paradise (Strelitzia), which are two plants that are very important to making our yard look better with less water. I think they also like the jasmine, but the flowers on my jasmine are on top of an arbor where I don't have such a good look at them - though you sure do smell them. If I didn't have plants the hummers liked I probably would go out and get some that they did.
     
  24. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    Your garden sounds wonderful Larry, Strelitzia growing in the ground? Ah, nice.
    The hummies see to be opportunists and feed on most of what's available tho some things I have never seen them enjoy, like the Yucca.

    I'd read that they eat insects and tho they seem not to hunt for them the way Warblers do, here's a blurry snatch at one that happened to fly by too closely.

    Yes, dial-up is good for hummy watching as it teaches one patience!

    D
     

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  25. Dana09

    Dana09 Active Member

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    This particular evening primrose is tough as nails.
    If it doesn't get enough water it simply stay short.
    If looked after it can grow to 7 feet in a protected spot.
    The long stems carry seed pods well into the winter an act as a food source for the birds who like to pick at it.
     

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