Hummingbird Aeronautics
September Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Comfort”
These Beautiful Birds Bring Me Peace
Each May, we plant salvia to invite the hummingbirds to our home. They get a plentiful supply of food. We get daily air shows, even when it is raining.
Hummingbirds engage in aeronautics that the Air Force can only dream about. The tiny birds stop on a dime, fly backward, and reach incredible speeds.
Each year as fall draws near, I attempt to photograph the hummingbirds. The combination of my limited photography skills and the incredible agility of the hummingbirds make great pictures rare. Even at shutter speeds of 1/2000, I often get blurs.
Earlier this week, I pulled a chair near the salvia and waited for the show to begin. It did. I snapped several nice pictures, but my favorite was of one hummingbird hovering, looking right at me. I imagined he was saying, “I see you!” just before flying away.
© 2022 J. Dean
Special thanks to the gifted Six Word Photo Story Challenge editorial staff: Ellie Jacobson, Sandi Parsons, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, and, of course, Mary Chang Story Writer, the creator of SWPSC. Thank you for one of the most engaging magazines on Medium.
