Henry Rifle Forums

My wife has a special place in her heart for cats and hummingbirds. She makes her own hummingbird nectar and pays fairly close attention to feeder levels. Usually, she puts out only two feeders at a time, three on rare occasions.

This year it seemed to both of us that we had more hummingbirds visit us than in recent years. At times, they were swarming around the feeders. Some of our local friends have commented on the same thing.

As of the last day or two, though, there seem to be far fewer birds present, I guess some have begun their journey south.

I hope this means our weekly sugar expense will begin to taper down.

There are still a few around here in the lowcountry, but not nearly as numerous as a month ago. Don't know about the upstate, but they say that there are a few that stick around all winter here. I have no idea what they would eat around here in Dec and Jan.

HenryFan wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 24, 2026 5:25 pm

My wife has a special place in her heart for cats and hummingbirds. She makes her own hummingbird nectar and pays fairly close attention to feeder levels. Usually, she puts out only two feeders at a time, three on rare occasions.

This year it seemed to both of us that we had more hummingbirds visit us than in recent years. At times, they were swarming around the feeders. Some of our local friends have commented on the same thing.

As of the last day or two, though, there seem to be far fewer birds present, I guess some have begun their journey south.

I hope this means our weekly sugar expense will begin to taper down.

I put out one Hummingbird feeder. I attached a tall sapling with branches on the feeder post. I've had it there for about three years. It sits about twenty feet from my LR picture window and they just love it. The males will take up position perched at the peak and act as gatekeepers, allowing females and chasing other males. It's an amazing all-day show during mating and breeding periods. I've had visiting females every day for the last two weeks. The last time I saw one was two days ago. I'll leave it up for another week, then bring it in.

This is a photo of it is from my LR window last summer. Would have been cool if there was a bird or two there at the time. Sigh.

What an idyllic scene. Sometimes I miss the 4-season fauna.
My upstairs neighbor at the last place had a feeder, them Hummingbirds came all the time.
Nice shot, clovis. Takes some shutter speed to make those wings appear still.

They are fascinating little creatures. We've seen a lot this year. We feed them here at home base
We used to feed them up at the cottage and had several regularly. Unfortunately, we had to stop the feeding up there because of bears. They've been a problem this year. More than in the past.

Ted124 wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 24, 2026 7:28 pm

What an idyllic scene. Sometimes I miss the 4-season fauna.
My upstairs neighbor at the last place had a feeder, them Hummingbirds came all the time.
Nice shot, clovis. Takes some shutter speed to make those wings appear still.

That was shot at 1/4000 sec. That's pretty much the lowest shutter speed to stop wings, although only at the top and bottom of the stroke. It's pretty much my go to shutter speed for hummingbirds. Anything higher usually gives too high an ISO and results in very noisy images. I can live with 1/2000 to 1/3000, but get some wing blur, even at the top and bottom of the stroke.

Sometimes a little wing blur looks good. It can give the feeling of movement.

I've taken a fair number of hummingbird shots over the last year or so. It can be challenging at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's not that difficult, as well as a lot of fun. I really like getting the males, with their bright red throats. This one was also at 1/4000 sec, and the wings are mid stroke, showing a bit of blur.