Despite spending considerable time trying to get a better shot of a hummingbird, I didn’t manage to get one better than those I got last year.

I guess I could be upset that I wasted several hours, but, truthfully, after two hours at the Y and a half hour walking the dog, I wasn’t up to doing any serious work anyway.

Sitting on the front porch in the sunshine I was reminded just how much activity takes place in the woods across the street. It took me awhile but I finally located this Red-Shafted Flicker

who kept tapping and making very loud calls.

While waiting, I also noticed that a considerable number of wasp visited our prune tree, which seems to host a considerable number of small bugs:

Not all the visitors were winged, either, as this yearling was dining on our fuchsia but exited, along with the hummingbird, when I stepped out with my camera:

Backlit by the setting sun, I remember why I bought these flowers long before I knew they were hummingbird magnets:

Of course, I also took several hummingbird pictures even if I don’t like any of them quite as much as last year’s pictures:

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get the best shot of the day, when one bolder than usual hummingbird confronted me, eye-to-eye, not more than an arm’s length away, much too close for my telephoto lens to focus on. Picture or no picture, it provided the highlight of the day.