As I continue with my “best of” series, the photo above is actually now a metal print in our home. I always wanted to photograph hummingbirds, even before I became a bit of a “bird nerd.” Being home more in 2020, I spent more time watching what has happening in the back yard. I first noticed a single hummingbird drinking water off leaves from a tree. I immediately set a hummingbird feeder out there. For almost two months I had multiple hummingbirds coming at most times of the day comprising three different species. This photo was early in the morning and I spot metered on the bird. The shrubs in the foreground and tree in the background were in shade while the bird had direct light on it, a scenario I enjoy, when it happens.

Red crossbills come in a variety of color and this young male will darken to red as he matures. He showed up in early spring, before I had taken my feeders down. When he first arrived, he was extremely weak, to the point I thought he would die. He wouldn’t fly more than a few feet and I actually could have picked him up, if I had tried. I honestly didn’t think he would survive and had initially thought he might have been injured. I photographed him to actually try to identify any injuries and couldn’t see any. Even when he flew a short distance, his wings looked fine. He never left the yard and often just sat on a feeder, but each day he would move around more and his flying was stronger. I noticed he was flying from one side of the yard to other and one day, a flock of 3 other males showed up. He flew off with them. They all returned for several weeks and I was very happy that he had found my yard and he was able to regain his strength from my feeders. I’ll finish this series out with one more post this weekend.