PandT Photo Galleries

A hummingbird is the one bird on the planet which will cause anyone, from any country, any background, to pause what they are doing and watch it flit about. Even with the sheer number of hummingbirds around the Sea and Sage Audubon / San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, you notice them flying overhead at break-neck speed each and every time. Mainly hoping to have them pause around you and hover/feed or land close enough to snap a decent portrait of the small bird.

This time of year, the flowers are just starting to bloom, so feeding spots are varied and not as accessible in the coming months when the gardens and path edges will fill with hummingbird-friendly foliage. This will play against the photographer, as without being able to plan ahead, it is extremely difficult to find the right angle to have a on-front level shot. But there are times when stars align, the universe smiles, and you are presented with something entirely new to you to take advantage of (at least for this photographer). In this instance, along one of the lesser traveled trails, a female Anna’s hummingbird was flitting around at head level in a manner which could be described as “nervous”. This is saying something if you have ever slowed your pace and watched a hummingbird when one has crossed your path as they ALWAYS seem to be nervous as a matter of course. Slowing the pace to watch and enjoy the hummingbird hover from one point to the next around in a clearing just off the walking path, it finally reached a comfort level to continue with its purpose. In this case, it was to visit its nest to check on it’s recently laid clutch of eggs.

With the eggs recently laid, this was the only visitation to the nest over the length of time at the spot on the first day; the discovery opened up the hopes of a longer term project over the next few weeks.

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The next weekend demonstrated how quickly things can move in nature, as within the week the eggs have hatched and two new chicks are underway in their fight to make it to the stage where they can head out on their own and continue the cycle of life. Short of having visited every day to notice when the eggs were hatched, the gauge of where these little ones were at a couple of days old.

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The next weekend’s visit brought with it some concern around if the new family was able to survive a series of pretty severe storms which passed through the latter part of the week. Walking out to their location, the damage to the sanctuary was easily noticed as trees up to 2 feet in width were uprooted, branches littering the paths, and reeds along the waterways being blown so hard they ended up becoming waterlogged and changing the flow of some of the streams. The concern growing as the walk to the nest progressed as the back areas of the Sanctuary suffered slightly more than the areas around the front pond areas.

Arriving at the nest showed that luck was with this mother hummingbird as although some of the larger dead wood trees were blown to a breaking point, they did not directly affect the area where her nest was built. The upper canopy now had a layer of dead branches being suspended by the lower trees, which resulted in a loss of direct light on the nest, making it slightly more difficult to grab a good, well lit snap, but knowing the nest was not compromised everything else could be worked around.

It was noticeable the nest this time around was less one occupant. While some will raise 2 chicks, either the storms or just the inability for the ‘runt’ of the two to receive what support it needed resulted in a single chick nest from here on out.

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Performing some research on the Anna’s Hummingbird resulted in learning that once the chicks have hatched, there is a 21 day average before they are able to fly the nest. Once this happens, the nest is abandoned. The next series of shots were captured over a week with almost daily visits to ensure the most opportunities of capturing the little Anna in the final days before her first and only flight from the nest.

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To highlight the pure blind luck chance of finding a nest with this availability to a consistent view without the need to harass or risk stressing the birds, here is a “where’s Waldo” view of the immediate area of the nest. Give the first shot a couple of min to see if you can find the nest is the usual described “mess” of the marsh canopy before clicking on the second pic which highlights it for you

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The end of 21 days shows the little Anna flexing and looking for her “out” of the next to take off and start her own journey. A little wind helped in grabbing a slightly different angle by forcing some of the dead branches out of the way for a single click.

If the question in asked “How do you know it was 21 days when you took that pic?” – easy. Returning on the next day, the view was a little vacant compared to the last 3 weeks watching little Anna grow up quick.

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If you would like to view all the shots of little Anna in a single gallery, you can view it as a Popout! gallery page.

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We hope you enjoy the above gallery!
Feel free to leave us a comment below to tell us what you think.
Thanks!

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Having noted the last few monthly wrap ups on visits the Wildlife Sanctuary have been excessively wordy, this month will have the commentary reduced for your viewing pleasure.

The month of March has seen the spring return of a good number of local visitors, all vying for their spot to build nests and work on the next generations. The Egrets are returning resulting in territorial “discussions” in the need to find prime real estate for nesting and fishing. A mating pair of Osprey have settled in, giving more than a few chances for sightings. The Tree Sparrows are back with all their break neck speed in darting around while scaring the Song Sparrows who are trying to bide their time in the reeds; and finally the mallard ducks are all looking for the best mate, resulting in some excellent water ballets at times.

The gallery for this month has everything in a single presentation, and would be better viewed full screen on the Popout gallery

GeoTracks for this month:
3/2 geo-track 3/9 geo-track 3/16 geo-track 3/23 geo-track
3/24 geo-track 3/25 geo-track 3/26 geo-track 3/28 geo-track 3/29 geo-track

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We hope you enjoy the above gallery!
Feel free to leave us a comment below to tell us what you think.
Thanks!

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