Photographing birds

[intertext]

There's a hummingbird in my garden with a wicked sense of humour. Several times I've been down there (I go "down" the main part of my flower garden) and I've heard that unmistakeable squeak like a bushtit on steroids and it's come and posed and flashed its colours at me and of course I haven't had my camera with me. The times when I've been sitting quietly _with_ my camera ready, of course, it's nowhere to be seen. Today, I went out on the deck with my camera because I thought I heard it squeaking. A nuthatch came by - unfortunately, all I got was a beautifully focussed shot of the suet cake and a somewhat blurry shot of the bird... Then, I was standing in the doorway taking pics of sparrows (like the one you see here) and - guess who flashes by! So fast that of course I had no time to focus or do anything sensible. I swear he went "beep beep"!! Oh well, sparrows are nice. Catullus would be pleased, perhaps (or perhaps not...)