Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds have been on my mind lately. I think it is because of seeing them at key moments in the movie Benjamin Button. The Captain on the tug boat was fascinated with them in the movie and would talk about them at great length. He would discuss how many times their small wings would beat in a minute. I don't know but somehow that hummingbird that appeared in the middle of a growing hurricane at the hospital window could be anyone of us at some point in our lives. The footage of that little bird up against the glass in the driving rain and window stayed in my thoughts. I started to think of some of the hummingbirds I had known and seen in my life.
The first humming bird I saw was in the U.S.A. It was a Ruby Throat ed Hummingbird and boy did it zing around from flower to flower. Later while in bordering school in Canada a ruby throat ed hummingbird flew into the classroom on the second floor of our school. It was trying to escape by attempting to fly through a pane of glass. I guess that is something we all try to do if school is not your cup of tea. The little bird was low enough down the window for me to reach and carefully grab him off the bottom pane. The bird did not struggle but rested in the darkness of my two clasped hands. I carefully carried him out of the building and across a green field to a near bye forest. Looking around I found a little bush about six feet tall and placed the hummingbird carefully on one of the small upper branches. He rested there in the branches completely exhausted by his encounter with the classroom windows. I left him there to recover and checked the bush a few hours later and he was gone.
When ever I have visited the East coast, hummingbirds seemed to cross my path. Maybe the word got out about my good deed in Canada. Last time I was in the USA one hovered right above my head like a little guardian as I photographed a flower in the late orange light of afternoon. It goes for certain that I consider Hummingbirds my friends. Indeed I know that they beat their wings fifty three times a second.I also know that the Ruby Throat ed Hummingbird is the only hummingbird that breeds in Eastern North America. They are only three to four inches long and their wingspan matches their body length.These birds are true feather weights, as they only consists of two to six grams.Their small backs are an iridescent green and the male hummingbirds have the iridescent throat of red, that they are named after.These birds have big hearts though and in Migration season they fly straight across the Gulf of Mexico to winter in South America. If you are in a garden this spring and the flowers are in bloom look out for one of my friends and know if you see one they will transfix you with their beauty and grace.

Rainbows Return

Skylight is the name of my house. It is a simple little Bermuda cottage with twin chimneys and skylights in the roof. In the afternoon around two p.m. the light streams through the westward window onto a prism that scatters light into the colour of the rainbow. I understand why Newton became so fascinated by light and prisms,when I see the colours stretching across the wall. The colours got my creative attention so I played around with different settings and times to arrive at one of many abstract pictures. The facet of a piece of crystal split the light into it's component colours but is amazing that visible light is a very narrow range of what is travelling at wavelenght to our little planet from deep space. Hope you enjoy the thought.

Funny Day with Rainbows

There is plenty of bait fry in the coves. Large schools just seating in the shallows taking the shape of the reef, hiding from jacks.The bay grape leaves had swept on the little beach on the high tide. Now the beach was covered with orange and green circles of leaves. I took my camera with me just in case I saw something new although it is getting more difficult to spot new photographs.It started to rain and the sun stayed out. Looking up the large gray cloud covered exactly half the sky the other half was blue.I took some close ups of the leaves and then headed back up the narrow road to Skylight.
I got in the car and drove over to Horseshoe Bay which is about two miles away from my house. It was in my head all week to start running again. My calf has been a little tight since my last run through the dunes. It was cool weather and perfect conditions for running. The beach was clear as I set off on my run. I brought my camera along and left in the car and if conditions still held some photography would be on the cards. When I got back conditions were perfect to shoot and I got some lovely beach shots with rainbows over my head. When the card was full I walked up to the West end of the beach where a party was going on. It turned out to be The English Chamber Orchestra relaxing with shirts off in the fifty nine degrees weather. They were visting Bermuda to perform in the Bermuda Festival^..^

Southshore