Documenting

Well, the documentary business is going very, very slowly. Our assigned genre was character study. Ick. That means we have to find a character. We have to find someone who's interesting right now -- we can't rely on something they did long ago that was interesting. So, OK, this is Las Vegas, right? There must be a million interesting people! We called about half of them today and they're so interesting (or so busy) they can't talk to us. We do have a lead on someone who does something extraordinary, but I'm not going to jinx it by saying anything right now. Just wish me luck.

In the meantime, I did have the chance to take a few pictures of the hummingbird nest today. I watched the star on her webcam today, and she was doing something a little different and new. She would leave the nest, but when she returned she would perch on the twig beside the nest and look in. Ooh! Was something going on in there?! I had to find out. In the late afternoon I sneaked a few pictures. There are still two eggs, no chicks. It's exciting to know the little ones will be hatching soon -- almost certainly within the next week.

The picture at the top of this post shows a little bit of the camera setup. That's a green fence post on the left, and you can see the nest at the bottom right -- click on any of the images to see a much larger version. And I'm attaching a real close-up of the nest. It's amazing to think of how long it took her to gather up all those tiny spiderwebs and fibers.

Oh, and if you're still reading, you might be interested in this article. It's full of detailed information about black-chinned hummingbirds and their nests.