This past Labor Day weekend my lovely wife and I took a trip south. Specifically to Hampton, Georgia and 
then Chattanooga, Tennessee. We left Wahoo, Nebraska around 1am and drove 18 hours in shifts down to Georgia to visit my cousin Judy and her husband Howard (also know by family as Ole Weird). After a day or so of visiting in Georgia we headed back north to Chattanooga.
Our visit with Judy and Howard in Georgia was a wonderful visit filled with late night conversation, honey harvesting, and good old Southern hospitality. During our family reunion my wife developed an interest in bee keeping thanks to “Ole Weird” who is an avid bee keeper. So needless to say she was greatly excited at the prospect of helping him harvest some honey from his bees. I will let her share her experiences of that event from her blog.
Prior to Robin and Howard donning their bee suits to pillage the bee honey, we were sitting on their back deck talking and something very fascinating transpired. Howard and Judy have a couple of hummingbird feeders hanging from rafters above their deck. While we were talking several hummingbirds began to hover around the feeders. They were chasing each other off to get to the feeders and making quite a racket. I was amazed at how close they were getting to us. Pretty soon several more hummingbirds showed up and we had a nice buzzing and commotion going on. I got my digital camera out and tried to take some still photos. The birds were zigging and zagging in and out so much it was hard to get a still photo. So I got the idea to set my camera to video and recorded the video below. I held the camera while they basically swarmed in and out and around the deck. I only captured them in video for a little over a minute but you can hear them chirping and buzzing throughout it.
I was also amazed at God’s creation in the hummingbird itself. Here are a couple of things I have since learned about hummingbirds. Did you know that the hummingbird is the only group in the bird family that can fly backwards? The wings of the hummingbird will beat 15 to 80 times per second depending on the species. That is so amazing to me.
Later in the week I will post something about the visit with our daughter Amanda, her husband Reece, and our adorable granddaughters in Chattanooga.
Upon This Rawk 
Really Robin
September 3, 2008 at 2:01 pm
It’s almost as good on video as it was in person – less the wonderful company, of course. Judy and O.W. sure know how to live!!
I’ll remember this trip for a looooong time.
Great post, HB
Erik
September 4, 2008 at 1:16 am
Now THAT was a fantastic 84 second video of hummingbirds. I recently tried to attract them and they never showed up to my nector. Oh well, I’ll stick with feeding the Goldfinches. Great pic as well!
Amy
September 4, 2008 at 11:19 am
This is so cool! What a treat that must have been to watch these hummingbirds!
This weekend we were fortunate enough to go to a butterfly garden. I was fascinated to watch some of these colorful flyers drinking nectar with the proboscis — they reminded me of elephants drinking water. I posted some pix on my blog.
Hope you’re well.
Zoe Ann Hinds
September 4, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Thought these few facts about hummingbirds might be of interest to you. Hope you enjoy the information.
The hummingbird can digest nectar very rapidly and efficiently. The nectar will pass entirely through the hummingbird’s digestive system in less than 20 minutes!
Due to the large amount of fluid a hummingbird will intake each day, a hummingbird’s daily urine output may exceed 80 percent of its body weight, whenever nectar is found to be plentiful.
Even though they have an extremely high metabolic rate, hummingbirds do not eat until they are full at every opportunity. During daylight hours, the hummingbird will eat frequently for short periods of time. At night, the hummingbird will eat as heavily as the nectar supply will allow. The hummingbird may store a third of its weight in nectar to ensure that it will survive its overnight fast while maintaining its normal resting metabolic rate.
If you would like much more information about hummingbirds, please click the links below. The sites contain many articles about hummingbirds, video clips about hummingbirds, an informative tips booklet on hummingbirds, and much more.
Click Here To Visit About Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds For Mom
barrydean
September 5, 2008 at 9:59 am
Rib,
I will remember the trip for a very long time too. It was very enjoyable.
Erik,
Thanks for the kudos. It was much easier to video than to get stills.
Amy,
Thanks again.
Zoe Ann,
I will have to check out those sites you mentioned. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Steve
September 9, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Hummingbirds fascinate me too. What an amazing creation!