Wintering Over

This is a male Anna's hummingbird enjoying our feeder. I have been trying to get a photo of him for some time. Whenever we are sitting on the deck at least one of the several hummers in our area comes by and check us out before sampling some of the nectar we provide. I usually am photographing the jays and my camera is not set as it should be to catch the hummers. Today was different. I was standing rather than sitting. The chair was wet and I wasn't in the mood to have a wet tush like I did yesterday photographing the birds. The Annas kept buzzing by and I finally got this fine fellow at the feeder. We recently watched a PBS special on hummingbirds and I learned that the Anna's hummers started in Central America and gradually migrated north. Now they can stay here through our winters. They are obviously very flexible and hardy birds.

I spent the entire day at a conference called Dementia 360 featuring Teepa Snow. She was really good and I came to understand much more clearly what it is like to have dementia and better ways to relate. She is a very vibrant person who communicates with great humor and clarity. It was a good day. The last session was very disturbing however. She was modeling what a person in the very last stages of Alzheimer's goes through and I found it quite upsetting. I could have done without that part of the day.