Inspiration From Hurricane Rita

What a crazy month this has been here (just north of Lafayette, Louisiana). We have been very fortunate. Hurricane Rita damaged the fence and hammered my banana plants and my other tropicals. We were without power for 15 hours - a minor inconvenience relatively speaking.

I was most concerned for the many hummingbirds who have adopted me and depend on me for 2+ quarts of nectar a day divided among 5 feeders. Watching them is so amazing. Friday, the eve of the storm, brought strong gusts of wind and rain. The size of these birds belies their strength. They surge through it all and manage to consume amazing amounts of food in spite of the fact that their feeders are swinging in the wind. They are most active just before sunset. Standing a few feet away, I watch them and listen to their chirps and the sound of their wings. Normally, they are territorial and stage little fights. Sometimes you can hear the beaks make contact like tiny sword fighters. The evening of this storm there was none of that behavior. They took turns feeding and just seemed to be intent on fueling up for the night ahead. Occasionally one of them will fly up to me, hover and dart back for more nectar. If I observe them from inside the house through the window, I'm no more than 2 feet away from them and they seem to realize that I'm the lady who fills the feeders.

The worst of the storm hit around 3AM. When I got up the next morning, I honestly didn't expect to see my birds, but Barry had already refilled and hung the feeders I had removed to protect from damage during the storm. In the back of the house was a female (who really does own that feeder) perched on the S hook waiting for me to replace her feeder. There were definitely fewer birds, but the numbers continued to increase throughout the day and it seems most are back and completely unharmed.

I've been researching Digital SLR cameras and hope to get a lens that will allow me to take pictures of these birds as well as lots more (bodybuilding) images for my web site. At this point I've decided to go with the Konica Minolta 7D. This picture was taken with my Olympus C-5050 zoom camera.

It has been heart breaking to watch all the innocent animals suffer throughout these storms. Knowing that some are as resilient as hummingbirds gives me hope.

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When I was in Las Vegas for the USA, I had the opportunity to work with Mike Yurkovic of Physique Art, Inc. I'll be preparing a gallery soon with these pictures. Here's one of the images that I like.