Tough choices...

Before packing up the Nikkor 300 mm lens and sending it back to lensrentals.com this afternoon, I managed to take somewhere around 400 photos around our yard.  Not surprisingly, most were of hummies and of one baby hummie in particular - yes, the little fledgling from yesterday was back and even sat on my hand for a short while.  Holy cow - what an amazing thing to experience.  

But, I decided to go with this gorgeous female Hooded Warbler instead of a hummer today since this isn't a bird that typically comes around the yard.  She was out in the cherry tree (yes the very same tree the bruin was in last evening) taking a vigorous bath in the dew on the leaves - not something I've ever seen before.  She flitted and preened and looked rather stunning in the early morning light.  I liked this particular shot with her tail feathers splayed.

I assume the young hummer I saw today was the same one as I saw yesterday although it is possible that the female could have fledged a second baby today.  Either way, it was mesmerizing to watch the two of them interact.  I was too close to get a shot when she zoomed in and fed him a bit of regurgitate food - boy, that would have been a fantastic shot!  But as I was sitting only about 24 inches away, it was way too close for photos.  And in the "coulda, woulda, shoulda" category, I do wish I'd thought to take a cell phone pic of the little guy sitting on my hand - I was holding my hand under a buddleia bloom and he was drinking as he sat in my palm.  Magical.  

I posted 3 shots of the young hummer and one additional shot of the warbler starting HERE on Flickr

And if you want to see a wonderful shot of one of our hummers taken last weekend please check out Hillyblip's entry from last Saturday - a fantastic shot!

Hubs is off to the races this weekend - he and one of his teammates are at the NJ Motorsports track, about 3 hours south of here.  It's going to be hot this weekend, but no rain, so hopefully the racing will be good!  As for me, I'm going to get reacquainted with Big Daddy, not having used it in the last 10 days. And I'll probably do a bit of macro stuff too.  

I stopped off at Walmart today and got one of those marine air horns - apparently they are quite loud, about 116 decibels, so it should be sufficient to scare the bear off of our deck should he reappear.  I must say, he is one of the largest bears I've seen in all our years here - his head was just enormous as it popped out of the top of our cherry tree.  Pretty funny actually, as I think about it now.  Not all that funny last night though...

I think it is about time to pour myself a nice glass of white wine and watch the hummers for a while.

Hope you are headed to a good weekend.