Kenn and Temple...the simply outstanding pics of your "blue" family never cease to amaze me. They always brighten my day. Your captures are extraordinary....many thanks for sharing with all of us. Happy new year to you both and to your blues! Donna

Thanks everybody, for the many nice comments. :) kris - We take many thousands of photos of our birds. And like most bird photographers, we toss out a large portion of them, to select the few precious captures we post in the Gallery. My best advice for backyard birders is to get close, or better yet... encourage your birds to get close. Then set your camera for continuous and practice keeping them in the frame while you shoot shoot shoot! ;) The downside of this advice of course... is that you need to spend a good deal of time sorting wheat from chaff. But I believe we all improve with practice, and generally get luckier as we work harder. Thanks again all, and happy birding. Kenn :) Here is a link that might be useful: 2009 Gallery

Wow! Great pics! I especially like the baby blues one. They match the dish perfectly!

Thanks Mark, Holly, bandjzmom, terrene, and again to all for your replies. :) terrene - As it turns out that was our last hummer shot for the year... they are gone now. Like most here we'll be watching for them again come Spring. We get that question a lot, about how we recognize Missy and Mr.B ... and distinguish them from their grown fledges or other blues. They are older than their kids... ha, sounds funny I guess, but it's true and easy to see really. And of course we observe their behavior and individual habits and character. I think this is kinda like having multiple parakeets or other pets of the same species that neighbors or friends can't tell apart... but the "owners" can. Our Blues are wild birds and free of course but they have been here with us every day (and several times a day) for nearly four years now. We know them well, and they also know us. They're not our birds, we're their people. Kenn Here is a link that might be useful: All Blue Review