New Kids in Town*

I'd seen Anna's Hummingbirds on ArtistAnnie's journal in December, but never expected to see them at our house, which sits 650 feet above sea level.

But despite our current very cold weather, now they're up in our neighborhood too! I'm reluctant to tally the number of hours I spent today trying to get good photos of these incredibly fast-moving birds, but let me just say that not much else was accomplished and I'm further behind than ever on comments.

Phil's technical skills and his dressing to please the hummingbirds (he wore his 40-year-old REI red down jacket, which had the added advantage of keeping him warm) resulted in his superb blip of our local pair of Anna's Hummingbirds in one photo session.

Three of my four hummingbird portrait photo sessions resulted in nothing worth posting, but my last, after a consult with Phil about fill flash and acting on his encouragement to wear his big red parka, gave me today's blip and three other views of Mr. AH:
1) At the end of today's weak sunlight, resting on a bare shrub and fluffing his feathers to stay warm;
2) On the same bare shrub, turned so the fading light caught the iridescent feathers on his head and throat;
3) At the feeder a little earlier, some of his feathers looking as though they were tipped in gold-green.

Our local newspaper had a front-page article today on the increase in wintering Anna's Hummingbirds in Whatcom County -- just one was spotted in 2005 on the annual one-day winter bird survey in the Bellingham area, but 52 were seen in 2013.

What a wonderful addition these tiny, feisty birds are to our winter landscape!

(*Listen to the Eagles' New Kid in Town here -- such wonderfully complex harmonies!)