Hummingbirds–2011–Part I

I’m determined to get better photos of “my” hummingbirds this year, so I’m moving the feeder closer to where I sit on the porch, and vice versa.  So far I’m two arm lengths away with my camera on a tripod right behind me, using a remote shutter button, live view shooting to reduce the camera’s noise, a 1/800 shutter speed, and an 18-55 mm lens zoomed fully in to 55mm.  I’m going to have to play more with the camera settings, but here are the best results of the past two days, selected from about 120 mostly rapid burst pictures.  All of these are cropped way down with some adjustments to exposure, and color enhancements, in Photoshop.

There are 3 birds who frequent my feeder, presumably a mom and two new hatchlings.  They consume half a liter of nectar from two feeders in about 5 days.

Notice the difference in the wing positions in these two shots.  In the one on the left they are as you would expect from a bird.  In the photo on the right, the bird has them rotated from the shoulder 90 degrees vertically and is flying backwards.  “Normal” birds cannot do this.

These birds love to play.  I assume Mom is the one on the perch, but that’s just a guess.

“I got here first!  Go find another place to stick you fracking beak!

Hair Study

So, I was at my niece Miranda’s graduation and her last name is rather late in the alphabet.  Given 300 or so graduates, it was quite a wait.  Not to be bored, however, I found something interesting to do.  And who says barbers and stylists are the only people who find hair a bit interesting!

Preludes

To a Manhattan spring:

And a lifelong love of chocolate!

Happy first birthday, Alice!

Music to Start Your Day

Heart warming story and a wonderful voice of Ani Choying Drolma ; a Nepali/Tibetan “Sound of Music” story.  Click here to see the NPR story and listen to a sound track.

Super Video of Space Shuttle Launches

For those who are fans of our space program, and of the 30 years of the Shuttle’s trips into orbit, these videos are outstanding and well worth the 60 minutes it takes to view them.  So, click here, set the video to full screen mode and kick back to watch.

Time to Ban "Utilize" From the English Language

For years I've been seething about the incredibly common use of the awkward, flow-breaking, three-syllable word "utilize".  It pops up everywhere in conversation and on the written page.  I came across this linguistic black head five times in the New York Times Op-Ed section this morning and that prompts this post.

Why the hell is "u-til-ize" spoken and written so often when a simple, one-syllable, three letter word works so much better?  Is it bureaucratic or academic pretentiousness at fault?  A disdain for the simple?  I don't know, but I do know that substituting "use" in its place drops any hint of pretentiousness or complexity.

There is, properly, a use for "utilize".  That is when the speaker or writer intends to modify the word "use" with "profitably", or "constructively"; e.g., "I brought the wrong tools so I couldn't utilize my time."  But "utilize" is used wrongly so frequently that the proper distinction between the two words is now lost.  As a result I think it would be better to go with "I brought the wrong tools so I couldn't use my time effectively".

Come on folks, it's time to stop utilizing "utilize" when a simple "use" will do just fine.

Hummingbirds II

About a week ago "my" first flock of Canadian geese came honking over the house and splashed into my creek for an overnight stay on their way south -- a harbinger of the fall season.  The next morning I noticed that two or three of my hummingbirds had also disappeared -- presumably on their way south.  I've still got two hummingbirds hanging around, but the rambunctious, playful behavior that has characterized the birds for most of the summer is gone as well.  Perhaps the hummingbirds still here are the older, more staid birds, that came up from the south this spring and parented the several that hatched in the early summer, while the younger birds -- anxious for their first trip beyond Hollywood -- left a little early.  Or maybe the older birds are the ones that took off knowing the strenuous nature of their flight to Central or South America and the younger birds, motivated by instinct, have gotten serious about fattening up for the day their genes instruct them to get moving south and found that their playful "dog fights" and strafing displays consume too many calories.  I wish I had the knowledge and eye-sight to recognize individual hummingbirds, but I know that few people do.

Soft Landing

In any case, the two birds that are still using my feeders will be taking off any day now.  I wish my birds well as they begin their long flight.  I understand that their route south gets them to the Gulf Coast where they follow the coast line down through Texas and into Mexico.  Over the years they've learned that this is hurricane season and a straight flight over the Gulf is too dangerous to attempt.  In the spring, however, many do make non-stop flights over the Gulf coming north, instinctively, genetically knowing that the risk in the spring is considerably less.

I'll keep my hummingbird feeders up for another month or so in case birds starting their migration from more northern summer homes need them for some quick calories along their route south.  And I look forward to the day in the spring when my same birds return to pester and remind me to put the feeders back up.

Fly safe!