[Leica] Anna Hummingbird feeding her young

[cummer at netvigator.com (H&E Cummer)]

Hi Luggers,
I'm taking a break from the blood and gore of Tanzania. My neighbour stopped 
me in the grocery store the other day to tell me that he had found a 
hummingbird nest in his garden.
Would I like to come by and photograph it? Of course, I said, and I have 
been over to his place three times to try and capture the action. I stand on 
top of his compost pile and
this brings me almost to eye level with the nest. I use the D800E with a 
1.7X extender on the old 300 f4.0 AFS. At first I used a monopod, and the 
last time, this morning, I used
a tripod to concentrate on the action around the nest. Here are a series of 
photos outlining the feeding cycle.

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Hummers2014/FeedPrep.jpg.html>

Please shift to the right to see the rest of the series. Mama fed the two 
babies three times in the hour I was there - one babe is more aggressive 
than the other - and he (she?)
gets more food than the quiet number two. Papa has already gone North, it 
seems, to go fishing and play in the Alaskan casinos - so Mama has a lot of 
work to do.

The nest is located in a dark spot - most shots are at ISO 6400 f11 or f13 
and shutter speeds in the 1/400 - 1/500 range. All the photos are cropped 
except the last one of Mama
flying away for another food foraging trip.

Please look large. C&C always welcome.

Howard (back in Hummingbird land)