Missing You!

"Missing You!" 

Judy Royal Glenn Photography

I go through withdrawal symptoms when these little guys leave.  It does free up a lot of my time though, and I can begin processing the photos I haven’t gotten around to. 

This shot was taken at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia in September.  It was one of those shots that I did not work on yet. 

This immature Ruby-throated hummingbird loved the branches of the Weeping Cherry tree.  As I mention in my writings several times, the hummingbirds have favorite perches they come back to time and time again.   

The hummingbird loved to perch in this tree, and a lot of times this branch.  I got out my pop-up chair and waited below the branches.  “She” was probably six feet away!

Using the process of elimination, I believe this hummingbird is a girl.  The easiest way to differentiate the mature male from the female is because the male has an iridescent red throat when the sun strikes it just right.  The female’s throat is white, but so are the immature males and females. 
 

It is very hard to tell the sex of an immature hummingbird.  Slowly the immature male starts to get his darker gorget feathers and soon gets a five o’clock shadow.  Then is makes it very easy to tell the hummer is an immature male.

I know it is an immature hummingbird by the tan color on the edge of the feathers on “her” head.  I’ll just call her a girl.

I do know an immature male hummingbird also perched on this tree.  I guess I will know in the early spring next year whether it was a boy or a girl by who comes back to return to their throne.

This photo was taken at marker # 17 on the hummingbird Trail at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. 

 Missing you!!

Location: Athens, Georgia