Readers’ wildlife photographs

June 24, 2015 • 7:45 am

Joe Dickinson sent multiple photos of a single hummingbirds; I could call the series, à la Wallace Stevens, “Seven ways of looking at a hummingbird.”

A male Anna’s Hummingbird (Calypte anna) has selected a twig outside my window as a primary surveillance perch, sallying forth periodically on foraging runs or to chase intruders.  This has afforded opportunities to catch him in different attitudes and lighting, though not yet in full sun to really light up his iridescent “helmet”.  He is, incidentally, a bit of a distraction as I try to finish reading “Faith Versus Fact”.

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Let me add one lovely stanza of Stevens’s poem that I mentioned above:

I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

 

14 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photographs”

  1. Very lovely. I had never noticed the tiny feathers that encircle the eye of a hummingbird before now.

  6. Great shots…I like the one where you can see its bitty feet…or rather, foot. IIRC Wallace Stevens was an atheist, no?

    1. Indeed he was, though he was of the view that even in rejecting religion, belief in a “supreme fiction” of some sort is necessary, and this is perhaps the central theme of his poetry. For Stevens, the substitute for heaven was to be found in poetry (“A High-toned Old Christian Woman” begins: “Poetry is the supreme fiction, madame”; see also his long manifesto of sorts on this theme, “Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction.”)

      In particular, “Sunday Morning,” his great poem about his preference for earthly reality over the idea of heaven, is a poem every well-read atheist should know.

        1. I just reread “Sunday Morning” as it has been a while (20 years?). Powerful meaning and I agree with the poem’s premise (or one of them)…heaven (or anywhere) would be very dull without change.

  7. Joe,

    Lovely pictures: we have a female Anna’s hummingbird visiting a nectar feeder (and the honeysuckle bush beside it) several times a day. I gave it the name “Mohammed” before my accomodationist partner objected (and we realized it was female).

  9. Wonderful opportunity to really study a hummingbird. One could spend many minutes with each beautiful photo. Thanks very much for sharing, Joe.

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