Fireworks in the skies and the tree

Day 5 of my blog postings and I'm, almost caught up.    The month of June and early July brought me some spectacular images of fireworks and a hummingbird nest.

Lets start out with the ephemeral night flowers:

 

Here is a small montage of various images from the Brecksville fireworks.

You can view my favorite images from this years fireworks displays at the following link:

Brecksville and Independence Ohio Fireworks 2014

Hudson Ohio Fireworks 2014

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In late May, while working at my home office, I noticed a female hummingbird near my condo.   It was fascinating to see her flying around my front yard.     One morning I saw her flying near the window and land in the locus tree in my front yard.   I went over to the window and to my amazement, she was building a nest in the tree.    It offered me a rare opportunity to see her building the nest and raise a family of hummingbirds.    What was even more exciting was the nest was not obstructed by branches or leaves.   From my bedroom window, I had a clear shot into the nest.  The photographic opportunity was irresistible.

Along with photographing the female building the nest, I wanted to capture some video of her building the nest.   Here are some videos from late May as she built the nest:

Humming Bird May 24 2014 from Jerry Jelinek on Vimeo.

Untitled from Jerry Jelinek on Vimeo.

The first egg was hatched on June 6th, and the second egg was hatched on June 8th.     Here are some photographs of the female at the nest during the feedings.

Here are some videos of some of these early feedings. (Note - I labeled the video as May 7 when in fact it was June 7th.   I was too lazy to redo the video.)

Hummingbird Feeding May 7 2014 from Jerry Jelinek on Vimeo.

Then another video feeding from June 9th:

Untitled from Jerry Jelinek on Vimeo.


The nest continued to thrive and the young hummingbirds continued to grow.   Based on readings I did of hummingbirds, I was expecting the young ones to fledge around June 21.  

On the afternoon of June 14, I saw a blue jay stalking the nest.   In the early evening, the blue jay got into the nest when the female was away to get food.  The blue jay quickly grabbed the young humming birds and just like a blink of an eye, the nest had been raided and the that was the end of the nest.    I haven't seen any hummingbirds near my condo since.  

From my readings of hummingbirds, the predation rate is very high.   The female is the lone parent who is responsible for building the nest and raising the young.   Anytime she leaves the nest, the young hummingbirds are exposed and very vulnerable.   I got to see that first hand.

On the positive side, hummingbirds will reuse nests in future years.   I'm hoping a hummingbird will reuse the nest next year.   It was such a neat experience to share the time with the hummingbird and the nest, I'm hoping in the future to make a more complete account of the young hummingbirds fledging. 

Well that gets you caught up with my photography efforts recently.  

Hopefully there were some images you enjoyed looking at.  

I'll try to be a bit more timely in getting new blogs posted of my photography adventures.