In May, a friend of mine posted several wonderful photos of hummingbirds (I don’t know if you’ll be able to see it if you’re not his friend) on Facebook that he had taken at the Hummingbird Habitat in Desert Breeze Park. I’ve been dying to go out there and try to capture some with my camera. I had gone a couple of years ago with no luck.

I often see hummers flitting around the backyard when I take Ralph out first thing in the morning. But I never have my good camera handy at that time.

Thursday was my first chance to go to the park. I tried to get out there early, but it was already 9:30 and 90 degrees when I left the house. Hummingbirds prefer to do their foraging early in the morning or late in the afternoon when it isn’t so hot.

I forgot that there’s a waterfall and a pool of water lilies at the Hummingbird Habitat.

Did you notice the two dragonflies near the lower left corner above? That’s the first time I’ve ever been able to photograph them. They’re fast.

There are all sorts of interesting plants in the garden.

There’s a tall tree sculpture in the center of the garden.

And, of course, lots of real trees. In one spot, they formed a canopy above the path. That shaded area was about 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the garden.

I wandered through the habitat looking for hummingbirds. I saw some other birds.

I finally did see one hummingbird, though I didn’t even get a good enough look at him to be able to tell what type. It was so hard to get a picture of him. He kept flitting about within a tree, and I couldn’t focus on him. My camera insisted on focusing on the leaves and blurring him out. I managed to get a few half-decent shots . . .

. . . but when I finally got my zoom lens focused in, he was done for the day. I never saw him again, even though I hung around and searched for another half hour.

Oh well. Maybe next time.