It’s been a while since I’ve sat on the patio and watched (and photographed) the hummers. The summer heat has finally relented a bit making it possible to sit outside and not melt. It was breezy and pleasant yesterday afternoon, 20 degrees cooler than normal, so I sat out for a while. I haven’t been around enough to differentiate each hummer or to give them names but I do think I’ve photographed this male Anna’s Hummingbird before because of what I consider the unusual pattern of feathers surrounding the base of his beak. He was being the typical dominant male chasing away two other male hummers (probably siblings) and at least one female. When he finally settled down, he remained on the alert, swiveling his head around as the branch swayed up and down in the breeze. The one moment I picked up my phone to turn on the Merlin App to identify a bird nearby, he did a slow wing stretch, fanned his tail, and flew off. Of course I missed capturing any of that. I’ll have to get back to using Auto Capture or Pre-release Capture so I don’t miss those perfectly photographable moments.