BASICS


BASICS: "Hummingbirds.....where is the person, I ask, who, on observing this glittering fragment of the rainbow, would not pause, admire, and turn his mind with reverence..." (J. J. Audubon).
This is a blog about my summer life at the Baiting Hollow Hummingbird Sanctuary, at my winter garden, Calypso, in the Bahamas, and aspects of life in general.
This private sanctuary is now permanently closed to the general public, as a result of a lawsuit brought by a neighbor. Only my friends and personal guests may visit (paul.adams%stonybrook.edu).

Saturday, February 27, 2016

Close-up of Mme W on, and leaving, the nest.


I managed to get a bit closer without disturbing her - about 10 feet away. I'm also using a tripod so the movement you see is entirely due to the wind, which is not strong today. Mme W's last nest was wrecked by a combination of days of rain and powerful winds, which caused the branch not merely to sway, but to whip around. I'm sure that the current branch will sway a lot too, but we are unlikely to get prolonged rain - we are now well into the dry season, and indeed it has not rained significantly for 6 weeks. The major difficulties now will be that the gumbo limbo tree is starting to lose its leaves (which is always does in the dry season), eventually exposing the nest to the strong sun, and white-crowned pigeons loves the ripening fruit that undergird the nest.
At the end of the video she leaves the nest, as she does periodically. She takes off extremely rapidly - the clip is shot in real time, which is why you can hear faint background sounds, mainly the relatively clam ocean. I'll try to get some slo-mo shots of her arriving or leaving. Meanwhile here's a 4X slo-mo version of the current video.




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