Hummingbirds

I saw a hummingbird in the yard a few days ago so decided to dig out the neglected hummingbird feeder and see what I could attract. And of course I set up a trailcam to monitor the action. I used my melted Browning, aka #6, and it did what it does best -- take thousands of images of the slightest motion and occasionally capture something of interest. In a little over 24 hours it fired off 10,584 times as the pole holding the feeder and a flower basket waved back and forth in the wind.

But I did get 113 hummingbird images in 10 sequences. The images are nothing special, except they prove at least one hummingbird has found the feeder. In this way, melted Browning #6 has served its purpose as a scout camera even though it sucks as a maker of fine images. I did dial back the reset time so it may not fire off quite as often, but I still expect to be clicking through thousands of images if I keep monitoring the feeder. If I mounted the feeder so it did not sway back back forth, I wonder if the little birds would set off the motion detector. For now I'm throwing thousands of images at the wall and getting 1% of them to stick. When I have time (which is most of the time in retirement), I'll set up the DSLR and try to get some real images.

Sunday: This is the best so far using remote triggering, Canon M100 with 70-200 lens and built-in flash, triggered from a phone app. The feeder I have is old, ugly and full of ants, so I have ordered a new pretty one with an ant guard.

Monday: Canon 5D Mark III, 100mm macro lens, Speedlite 380EX flash, 1/250 at f4, ISO 200. Zone focusing, remotely triggered, hope to get lucky. I will boost ISO and try to get some more shutter speed. Hope to get the nicer-looking feeder in a few days. Obviously the Speedlite on the 5D is more powerful than the little flash built into the M100.