Wednesday, September 10, 2014

I Love Those Anna's

With fall just around the corner I'm left mostly with just the local hummingbirds. There are always one or two Anna's Hummingbirds that will stay all the way through until next summer. We do get snow where I live and Anna's can survive the cold for short periods by going into torpor. In torpor they suspend their high rate of metabolism by entering a sort of hibernation, where heart rate and body temperature are reduced to a bare minimum. Their breathing and heart rate slow, and their body temperature can drop as low as 48 F. When the cold weather clears, the hummingbirds return to being active again in a few minutes. It's pretty amazing! Here are a few images of hummingbirds from this morning in the backyard. I had a great time photographing them. They are such gorgeous little birds! God bless, chris My new book "Secrets of Backyard Bird Photography" includes a chapter on how to do hummingbird photography. It is available from Amazon and other fine book sellers and for Kindle as well. All images created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400 IS lens. Camera settings used Manual mode, ISO 200, F18.0 at 1/200th of a sec. (4) Canon 540 EZ flashes were used set to 1/16th power. A Manfotto 055XB tripod and a Bogen 3055 ballhead was used to support the camera.

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