Hummingbirds and Slower Sights

We spent a few days in far eastern Washington at a site along the Pend Oreille River which is a tributary of the Columbia and in the area where were we staying the river runs north towards Canada. As we often do at a site we put up a Hummingbird feeder and proceeded to watch the festivities.

The view up the river was quite beautiful. This image is taken from the RV site we were occupying. Here in the early morning there was some fog drifting across the river.

Several people in the park were seasonal visitors meaning they stay 5 months. They come in beginning in May and stay until the cold forces them to leave in early October. The people in the site next to us lived in Coleville, WA about 45 miles away and came over here each weekend with their family. They had boats and ATVs and all the toys. They leave their trailer and all the items at the site for the full five months. They were really neat people.

We have always had trouble getting decent images of Hummingbirds. They are birds of constant motion and as soon as you try to focus on one it is gone either chasing another hummer or being chased. Here is a Black-chinned Male named for the obvious Black colored chin.

Here is a Black-chinned female. She has a clear breast and a very slight curve to the bill. There are white spots on the end of tail and small white mark behind the eye. Several other hummingbirds will show some of these same attributes but we are fortunate here in that we have only seen Black-chinned and Rufous Hummingbirds.

Ok look up, look up. As mentioned the hummingbirds are always moving. They look up and down and side to side. You need to spot a predator before it spots you and you need to be wary of other hummingbirds trying to drink from YOUR feeder.

Not being ornithologists but still a little observant, we can tell, almost immediately, that this is not a hummingbird. It is a Gray Catbird. There were a pair of them that had a nest in the area and we saw them frequently. The fence the bird is sitting on is the boundary of our site and keeps us from falling off the cliff and into the cold water of the river.

We looked a lot for Loons when we were over in the Oroville area. Here swimming south or up the river is this neat looking Common Loon just paddling along. We never did see the Loon dive so it must not have been hungry. By all reports there were a lot of fish in the river for the Loon to eat.

Old “One Wing Willie” sure struck quite a pose. No he doesn’t have just one wing and we doubt he is waving at us. We just happened to catch this Black-chinned male stretching and relaxing from all the activity and chasing and eating.

This is a Rufous Male named for the obvious rufous coloration of the body feathers. The colorful feathers around the neck, called the gorget, are not pigmented colors rather structural colors which means they are reflected by microscopic structural features of the feather surface. You can see a wide variety of colors displayed by the hummingbird.

This is a Rufous Hummingbird female. She has some of the reddish tinge to her that we saw more prominently on the male. Note the tongue on the end of the beak. Quite a long tongue to reach into flowers or the feeder as in this case.

This was just an interesting pose for a hummingbird, the colors show up quite well.

This is a fun image that we don’t see very often. There are two hummingbirds sitting and drinking at the feeder at the same time. Generally one chases the other off or some dominant male chase both of them off. The further interesting aspect of this image is that the one on the left is a Rufous female and the one on the right side is a Black-chinned female. You can see the size difference, bill length difference and markings fairly clearly. This is a decent comparison of the two females of their respective species.

We have seen the hummingbirds look in all directions. This Rufous is looking down at something. You never can be too careful. Who knows where the enemy lurks.

Here is a final view from the front door looking down the river. It is a beautiful, serene, mesmerizing setting and one could just stay there for a long time or at least until the cold and snows of winter started arriving.

This concludes our brief look at Hummingbirds at Blueslide RV. We hope you found the images and narrative a little interesting and somewhat fun to read. We enjoyed seeing the birds and taking the pictures. Northern Washington State is really great country for a visit and a great vacation, oops I think since we travel full time we might be considered always on vacation. Oh well, it is a wonderful place nonetheless.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. All the best – George & Deanna