So the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird is in the 3-3.5″ range.  I got this photo at 500mm, without using a tripod, with an 8lb camera/lens combination.  No, I don’t know how I did it either:

This is the first hummingbird I’ve seen this year, so it was a real treat to get such a good photo of it.

A quick note before I continue: these are mostly smaller versions of the photos.  They’re all hotlinked to larger versions on my web site.   Every photo was taken with a Pentax K-7 with a Sigma 50-500mm lens.  No shots involved tripods, but a few of the heron type birds involved using either my car or a wooden fence to stabilize the photos.  

One of the major events of Spring in New England is migratory warblers.  Warblers are small birds.  They can range from 4″ – 5.5″ with a few variations slightly outside that range.  I’ve had some good luck with them in the past few weeks:

Black-and-White Warblers are not that difficult to find if you know where to look for them.  They have an easy to identify call (like a squeaky wheel) and are fairly aggressive:

Palm Warblers are also fairly prominent for this time of year, but unlike the B&W warblers, they won’t stick around for very long.  I almost never see them outside of May but at this time of year, I can get some great looks at them:

I don’t have a good read on Pine Warblers.  I see them rarely, so I don’t know their patterns well.  I almost never get great photos of them, which is why this particular shot is quite pleasing to me:

Yellow Warblers, on the other hand, are commonplace here in the Green Mountain State, all Summer long.  They nest at several of my local birding spots and I’ll be able go get much better photos than this one:

Yellow-Rumped Warblers are among the earliest and latest warblers we get– they can survive in colder climates than some warblers, due to their ability to digest certain types of berries that other warblers can’t, which allows them opportunity for food other than insects (the primary warbler diet):

Chipping Sparrows are the Summer American Tree Sparrow.  I almost never see both birds on the same day, and a true maker of the new season is when the Chipping come in as the Tree Sparrows are on their way out:

Baltimore Orioles invariably show up here within the first few days of May.  I often hear them before I get to see them, but yesterday one flew right up and landed on a feeder in front of me:

Dark-Eyed Juncos are usually gone by now; they’re primarily winter birds (though you can find them at higher elevations year-round) so I was surprised to see one pop up last week:

Evening Grosbeaks tend to show up in our yard twice a year, during migration, sticking around for as little as a few minutes and as much as a few days before continuing on their path until they come back the other way.  This afternoon, one let me get a lot closer to it than I expected:

The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, on the other hand, sticks around for us all Summer:

Northern Flickers hang out year-round, but they only do their mating displays, such as the yellow fantail, around this time of year:

Great Blue Herons will go wherever there’s enough open water for them to fish.  I caught this one flying from one spot to the other last Sunday:

Great Egrets, like herons, go where the fish are:

One thoroughly unexpected bird was this White Faced Ibis that showed up on Plum Island, MA.  I managed to get photos of it shortly before it met its untimely demise under attack by (and I am not joking) a peregrine falcon:

The American Bittern is a difficult bird to find.  It stalks its way through reeds and when senses someone around, it will stick its neck straight up and pretend to be reeds.  That’s why I felt particularly lucky to get this look at one, which started with me spotting it out of the corner of my eye driving down a road at 40mph.   I usually find them when they’re pointed straight up like this, so it was pretty neat to get to see one actually pause, notice me, and do its point straight up into the air thing: