The "Little King"

I looked out the kitchen window this morning to a winter
wonderland of snow, I forgot to fill the bird feeders last
night, and I now have an army of hungry birds waiting
for me to get with it!

With shovel in hand, I first clear the snow off the ground beneath
the feeders for the White-throats, Juncos, Cardinals and other
terrestrial feeding birds.

Shoveling beneath the suet feeders I hear a bird vocalizing incredibly close to me,"gitit-gitit..." I look up and less then two feet from my face is one of the "Crowned Jewels" of birds.

Regulas calendula, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet, singing up a storm, this barely four inch bird is always a wondrous sight, any time of year.
To have one vocalizing, inches away from me is even more spectacular.
I think about this for a bit, as I went outside to clear the grounds, I had scattered numbers of Starling, Grackles and Blue Jays, larger birds that this little guy could not compete with at the feeders, but less fearful with humans, this smurf found a moment alone, to take advantage of the vacated suet feeders.
I dropped the shovel and ran inside for the camera. yes upon my return he was still there.
Now anyone that has ever tried to photograph a Kinglet will tell you that they don't sit still for 1/100 of a second,(split second) this is why you must set your shutter speed for 1/1000 and still hope you can catch up with him. Just joking, but it is the truth, these guys just never sit still for just the slightest of moments. I did manage to salvage a couple of photos, I deleted hundreds along the way.
Click on the photos to enlarge, they are very cool!

1/1000 shutter speed to freeze the "Little King"


Having fun catching snow flakes? Zoom In!