Sunbird

I was not prepared when this small sunbird came to feed on the nectar of this flower that I was photographing.

A number of the shots had blurry images of this restless creature. My focusing was single point and I did not have time to bother about what aperture I had set.

Photographing birds is not a touch-and-go affair. One needs to lie in wait and train one's camera and lens at the position that a bird is likely to appear. One has to have the patience and stake out these creatures to get satisfactory shots.

I am not happy with these shots because the sharpness was less than desirable. Nevertheless these were good records of a chance encounter with this particular sunbird.

Crimson Sunbird

This highly active bird was chirping noisily amongst the Heliconia plants. The sun was in my eyes and that made photographing the subject difficult. There was not much time for fine adjustments especially so because I was using the Canon IXUS. The pictures were predictably not sharp. It was the encounter that mattered.

Kingfisher

When was the last time I saw kingfishers? A long time ago so much so that I have forgotten about the excitement of seeing flashes of electric blue streaking at low levels from tree to tree cleverly keeping a distance from me. This time my friend pointed them out to me and I was lucky to have my 250 zoom lens with me. The birds (a pair) were there and the camera was in my hands. Alas, I had no time to to do the camera settings being afraid that these suspicious birds would not stay long enough for me to twiddle with the dials. I did not get great shots of this pair of kingfishers. I should learn to be more patient and have more faith that these birds are not really in much of a hurry to leave. Hmm, maybe I should get a 300mm zoom.

"Jack Sprat could eat no fat
His wife could eat no lean
Between the two of them
they left the platter clean"
A nursery rhyme that stuck in my head and was recalled when I noticed that this pair of kingfishers match the description in the rhyme.

A bird circled the sky above. It must have been busy looking for building materials for its new nest.