Mating Hummingbirds

 

Mating Anna's Hummingbirds, SF Botanical Garden

Just the other day as I was watching a hummingbird gather nest material from a cattail's fluffy flower head, I thought to myself that I would never in a million years get a shot of mating hummingbirds. And this morning, I almost didn't.

The Z8 is a great camera, but sometimes it just can't find the bird in the frame. When I first saw the hummers mating I put my lens on them and could not get the autofocus to lock in -- not even close. There goes my one-in-a-million shot right there, I thought. But then I saw them going at it again! This time the autofocus dialed them right in. Whew!

Later on, I was watching a flock of cedar waxwings when a school group of maybe a dozen 8-year-olds wielding sticks as swords filled the space around me, which included a piece of statuary holding a bowl of water. Even the girls were playing this imaginative stick game, making up a storyline as they went, and one of the girls said, "Put your stick in the water and it becomes 20 percent stronger!" Without missing a beat, a boy called out, "It's holy water!"

Straight outta King Arthur's Court.

As I figured, the pipevine swallowtail caterpillars are at the end of the line on most of the small, remnant pipevine plants just north of the pond and new greenhouses. They ought to move some of them to a couple other areas where there's fresh and more plentiful pipevine growing.

Song Sparrow on Turquoise Puya Bromeliad

Burly House Finch

House Finch Munching Leaves

Anna's Hummingbird Feeding on Tree Fuchsia (Fuchsia arborescens).

Allen's Hummingbird Feeding on Woody Spurge (Euphorbia dendroides).

The markings around the eyes of this hummer seemed interesting and unusual, but the Merlin app says it's just an Anna's hummingbird.

The mating session was happening near the top of the Succulent Garden, and afterward the female zipped into some nearby cover to preen.

I had thought they were on the ground when I was photographing them, and only when I saw the images did I realize they were on a leaf.

Earlier I'd seen a flock of cedar waxwings gathering at the top of a redwood near the Succulent Garden, but a red-shouldered hawk swooped in and scattered them.

This bunch was near the exit, just south of the little courtyard with the small fountain.

Most of the birds stayed high in the trees, but a few brave ones came down closer.

They didn't seem to really have any berries or anything decent to use in playing their "kissing game" courtship ritual where they pass something back and forth. Here, it looks like they had maybe a tiny piece of wood. Males have a darker chin patch than females, so it looks to me like the male is on the left.

Sometimes courtship rituals go sideways when the overture is rebuffed. The bird on the right aggressively told the other one to back off.

Incoming Mallard at Blue Heron Lake

Things were pretty quiet up at the heron nest, so I amused myself by trying to catch one of the tree swallows as it swooped over the surface of the lake.

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