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March 11-13, 2018

For the third year in a row, a hummingbird mama, probably the same one, built a nest in a hanging cactus near the front door.  She laid two eggs (about the half or less the size of an M&M) on Feb, 8, 9, and two chicks hatched on about Feb. 20, 21.  I know this because I could take blurry iPhone photos of what was in the nest.

I started taking photos when they were big enough to be seen over the edge of the nest on March 9 until March 13.  One flew away March 14, the other on March 15.  The last baby bird hung out in a nearby low tree for about another week and was continued to be fed by the mother bird.  By the way all of the black spots on the cactus is bird “poop”.  “Get out of the way when they do it!”  The nest is less than 2″ in diameter and 1.5″ deep, make a circle with your thumb and first finger, inside diameter, and you have it.  These are cropped and “blown up” pictures.

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The nest was very difficult to see from the front door or the office window as it faced the street.  I set up my tripod with the Nikon 750 camera with 24-120 mm lens about 2 feet from the nest and set it on manual focus.  The camera is able to create a wifi connection to an app on the iPhone.  Then I just sat inside the front door and waited until the hummingbird arrived for feeding.  I just clicked the iPhone repeatedly the whole time, not knowing what I was taking.  The bird really did not like the intrusion, so I only did two to three feedings per afternoon and/or morning.  The bird would regurgitate the food for 1-2 minutes per feeding and then would be off getting food for 30-40 minutes before returning.  She also was meticulous in feeding both babies equally.