Photo of the Day........Ruby Throated Hummingbirds

What a fiesty bunch of little stinkers.  As the Hummingbirds passed back through this week they have been tanking up on suger water and fighting big time.  I will never figure out how they even maintain their body weight, what little it is, from all the fighting they do. 

I had the unbelievable experience of holding one in my hand.  It got trapped in the garage attracted by the red garage door  red release pull handle.  I waited for him to tire out and then gently grabbed him from his perch.  He went quiet in my cupped hands and I genuinely could not feel him in there.  I walked over to my wife so she could see and opened my cover hand.  He looked about and flew off in an instant.  I was left standing there thinking to myself.  "I held a hummingbird!"  

I decided to try to stop hummingbird wings in mid flight.  No blur.  I set the shutter to it's highest speed [1/8000-sec] and the adjusted the apeture to maintain the proper exposure and after increasing the camera speed to ISO 1000 I froze the wings.  But, stopping the wings also depended upon the angle I photographed from.  I have only processed one photo but I wnat to share it with you.  The one hummer is going inverted.  Does any other bird actually go fully inverted like Maverick and Goose?  I am not sure another bird can. 

CANON EOS 40D W/CANON EF70-200 F/2.8l IS USM LENS  F/3.2 1/2500S ISO 1000