Butterflies and Hummingbirds

Butterflies, hummingbirds, and glorious Fall-like temperatures beckoned me and my cameras outdoors recently, where I spent a pleasant half hour capturing a Gulf Fritillary Butterfly flitting back and forth from the lingering blossoms on our Chaste Tree to an Ornamental Grass plant beside the pond in our courtyard. You can click on the pictures to get a closer look, if you would like.

Our hummingbirds are frantically stuffing their little selves in preparation for their long journey southward to Mexico, or South America, or wherever they spend the winter. They are very aggressive at the feeders and when they have their wings spread in their "attack mode" to ward off incoming hummers, they look like little fat, round butterballs with feathers zooming through the air.

I captured this little guy as he rested on a limb of our Bay Magnolia tree ...

Here are a few pictures I captured of another hummer at one of the feeders. He looked so graceful as he came in for a landing (of course, it could have been a female, but I'm going to use the male pronoun since I don't know enough about hummingbirds to determine the gender).

Putting on his brakes!

Do you see the little "cross-like" shadow in the next picture? I was trying to focus on the hummer, but inadvertently focused on the Crape Myrtle branch instead. I like the way the hummer was silhouetted in the background, though.

Once he settled on the feeder, he didn't look very happy to have his picture taken.

Is that a frowny face I see in this next picture?

And in this picture, he seemed to be trying to shoo me away!

Bless his heart ... I left him to drink in peace, but hope to capture more of our hummers' antics before they leave us. It always makes me sad to see the butterflies and hummingbirds go, but for every thing there is a season, and it's always exciting to welcome them back in the Spring.