Went camping in the Jemez Mountains, New Mexico over the weekend. I often hang a humming bird feeder when camping to draw some action... Word gets around and by day 2 there are maybe a half dozen hummers zooming around. They are very territorial buggers, with some particularly thuggish and will attack to keep others away from the feeder. They actually are pretty ferocious! Ounce per ounce I'd say they could hold their own with just about anybody in the animal world! Some times you can hear them smash into each other. "Smash mouth birding" I like to call it. I enjoy catching doubles and don't always have much luck. I love looking at the different formations they can make with their wings and body. They get pretty contorted to manage the acrobatics they can do. Love the hummers!

Thanks for your comments... Photo On!!

Again, thanks to each for your warm comments...

Thanks to all for the comments! We live in a beautiful world! I think our images help people value nature more...

Camped a couple nights at the CG at the El Morro National Monument. It is maybe a mile from the Monument and visitors center. Only 9 sites and they are pristine! I was alone one night and another night had 2 sites taken! Very peaceful and quiet. I had to work pretty hard to get the birds! By that I mean patience!! I shot about a 30 frame burst of a momma green-back Towhee feeding her juvenile. This had to be a millennium youngster. He looks way old enough to be on his own, but nooooo! Momma gots t'take care of the little fellow! I just included one frame here, but watching the food transfer was very cool! Also thrilling was watching the blue birds catch bugs and flies. They are amazingly acrobatic!!! The pictures are very bad, impossible for me to capture, but it was awesome to just watch! Every now and then one has to just put the camera down and be awed!

This National Monument is a spectacular place!! It was a destination point for travelers, soldiers, Spanish gold seekers, and Catholic missionaries. The water hole never is dry! And this is the desert!! There was once a pueblo of over a thousand dwellers up on the top! There is reported to be over 1,000 inscriptions carved in the rock! The names, script, Spanish and English, and the dates are amazing to see! There is a very small campsite about a mile away from the Monument and visitor's center. It is pristine! I'll post another gallery of the birds I shot there. It is quite a surprising treasure!!!

Stunning!!

Thanks for the responses! Photo on!!!

This weekend I went to Albuquerque's Nature Center, Bio-Park and Open Spaces. I've been watching the Cooper's Hawk nest for several weeks now. The sleek one is an adult male who was carefully supervising the flying lessons and monitoring my distance to his youngsters. Look at those talons! I was monitoring him pretty carefully too!

Tamron 150-600 on Nikon D 500

Thanks for responses! It’s great to catch Life in the world of nature...

Had opportunity to shoot an extremely well hidden Cooper's Hawk nest with Mommy Hawk and Eyas. I couldn't figure out the kill - thought I saw fur until I got it up on the computer and saw the bird leg sticking out of Eyas mouth. Mommy ALWAYS had one eye on me and branches between us! All of these photos are extremely cropped. We feed birds from our third floor apartment's balcony. Last week a Cooper's swooped down, landed on the railing for several seconds before taking off. I think he was checking out potential buffet options. We had the door open one day, and Finch flew in, took a few laps around the living room before exiting same way he came in. I am always amazed how birds adapt to city life! I wonder if it's a choice of preference, or if they just don't know other options like wilderness...

wow!! Make space on the wall!!!

I am wondering if this debate is really a necessary one... Don't we have enough strident opinion exchanges in other public venues. I am weary of vitriolic "non-discussions". In the end, people will simply make a choice and decide what they want to do, and I seriously doubt of the coming exchange here will make a lot of difference...

You are right! I’m a big Steve Perry fan and have his books and love them! Maybe I missed , but my problem is in the excecution of activating the subselector...it seems to require a very precise depressing of subselector or it will not activate...Steve?