On May 25th I decided to try some hummingbird photography from the platform we built downslope from the house. Usually I use a blind on the platform, but decided to try it without the blind this time (knowing that hummingbirds usually are pretty unconcerned with close-proximity humans).
Sure enough, the hummers happily congregated, and I obtained some images of them:
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| Anna's Hummingbird |
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| Anna's Hummingbird |
Before long, I saw what looked a bit like a cat creeping in the thick manzanita stand beyond where the hummingbirds were, and about 30 seconds later, a gray fox face appeared above one of the rocks in front of the manzanita. It was perhaps 15 feet away from me! It lingered for long enough to get quite a few images, but as I only had the 400 mm telephoto, I could only get close-cropped portraits! Exactly the opposite of the usual wildlife photography dilemma (with the subject a dot in the distance). Here are two of the portraits. The fox looks particularly unconcerned, I would say:
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| Gray Fox, unconcerned by humans, cameras or tripods |
Some other birds visited at close range also, and were fairly unafraid:
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| White-breasted Nuthatch, with small food item |
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| Male House Finch, yellow form |
