Saturday afternoon I was on my own again, so I headed down to Delta to Reifel to see what was going on. It was a beautiful day, and I haven't really had my camera out in a while. I was quite surprised to see that the parking lot was pretty empty - a rarity for the Sanctuary when the sun is shining.

The barn swallows were nesting up above, and were quite content to watch me as I watched them

I stopped inside the front gate at the warming hut (more for winter obviously), but I had had some luck with swallow here in the past. The barn swallows nest under the rafters, and there were tons of them flying around. They were nesting, so all of the nooks and crannies under the roof had nests, most of which had birds sitting on them.

This pair of barn swallows were on a nest, which you can see in the background.

After watching the swallows for a bit, I headed into the Sanctuary and wandered the trails. It was really quiet, with hardly any birds (or people for that matter) out and about on this very nice day. I spent a bit of time with the tree swallows near one of the ponds (no luck this time around), but did find where the sandhill cranes were nesting. Sadly, they have it blocked off as the cranes can get very aggressive and hurt people.

A pair of wood ducks were enjoying the warm afternoon.

A couple of the sandhill cranes were away from the nesting site, and patrolling the water's edge.

The day was pretty quiet so after a couple of hours of mostly uneventful shooting, I headed back to the main entrance. The great thing about Reifel in the summer is that you can count on the hummingbirds to be around. Their feeders are always buzzing with action, and today was no exception.

A male rufous hummingbird in flight, enjoying a drink at the feeder.

I probably spent a good hour or so at the front entrance, watching and shooting the humminbirds as they came and went. There are tow main species this time of year, the brown Rufous and the more green (on the female anyway) Anna's Hummingbird.

A female Anna's Hummingbird (I think...)

As it was getting close to closing, it was time to head for home. It was an amazing day, so I spent some time on our roof deck and enjoyed the sunshine. As the daylight started to fade, I was able to shoot a nice panorama of the view.

But of course, as I was shooting the pano image, I had a visitor to my own hummingbird feeder on the deck. Not having the right gear, I got one quick shot in.

Shooting hummingbirds with a 24-105mm lens just doesn't work.

Fortunately for me, I was able to swap out to a proper lens, and was rewarded by the little girl coming back for more, not too much later while the light was still nice. It was a great ending to the day!