Dressed for Travel

The adult hummingbirds are starting to show signs of molting which also means they will soon be heading south, most of them all the way into Central America.  This male is showing wear on his belly as well as the tail feathers, but his throat remains brilliantly ruby colored.  And his attitude is unchanged - 100% feisty!

It was quite dark out when I took this so I increased the EV three clicks, lowered the shutter slightly and kept the ISO at 2500.  Even so, I had to lighten it a bit in Lightroom.  Overall, I'm happy with the image.  And I had a lot of fun trying to get shots of the various hummers careening around the garden, chattering and flaring their tails.  

Jax is at daycare today although since it's been raining off and on, I'm not sure how much play time he has had.  I feel bad that we can't really play ball and let him run in the yard right now because of the bear situation.  

A follow up appointment with the rheumatologist I saw a few weeks ago.  Seems like we might be closing in on a reason for the joint pain although one more test to be run.  It seems likely that I have rheumatoid arthritis which isn't as bad it sounds.  There are medications that can hold symptoms at bay and it doesn't need to be the crippling disease it was 30 years ago.  Anyway, we'll see what the next test shows.  And in the meantime, Tylenol is my friend!

Dark with chili today.  

xo
Debbi