The Weekly Smile for the 10th of August, 2020 #weeklysmile

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weeklysmile2b

Hi all.  It was a pretty good week here with plenty to smile about.  I talked a lot about my main smile on my Coffee Chat, so I am going to start someplace else.

Sitting on my back patio, I see a lot of hummingbirds come in to feed at our flowers.  As soon as I bring out the camera, they all stay away…  Well, I finally got a good photo:

Himmingbird

Here is a close up.  It was pretty late, so relatively slow shutter speed (all of the other photos were blurry – I changed ISO from 200 to 1600 after this burst, but no more hummingbirds).  Here is a closeup of the photo above.

Hummingbird crop

I did my typical run on Friday afternoon.  It is pretty long and hilly (over 500 ft/150 m rise in elevation in the first 2 miles/3 km), but I decided to add a half a mile and small hill near the end.  Coming back from that little add-on, I hit the main road at a pretty good clip and noticed a large, black dog coming my way.  No human.  Oh, oh.  And, my isn’t that dog big.  It is huge!  It is gigantic.  It is… not a dog!

I screeched to a halt and said, “Oh, wow!” I was about 15 feet away, perhaps 20 (around 6 meters).  (It might have been less!)

The 400+ lbs (180+ kg) of American Black Bear must have heard me, for it also stopped, then raised up a little on it’s hind legs, so we were seeing eye-to-eye. It sniffed, then twisted as it put its front end down off of the road.  It is amazing how fast almost a quarter ton of bear can run!  It is also amazing how silent that huge mass of muscle can be as it zips through the dense underbrush.

After it was gone, I crossed the road, ran until I was well past were it had entered the woods, then crossed back to the correct side again (facing traffic, though there was none).  The rest of my run was uneventful ;)

I was never frightened, just amazed.  I know there are bear in the area, and have friends who see them almost daily.  I have rarely seen a bear in NH, and never one that was less than a few hundred feet away (100 m or more).  OK, in zoos.  But seeing a bear nose to nose when you can almost reach out and touch it is different.

And very cool :)

So those are my smiles, photographing a hummingbird and seeing a black bear up close and personal.

What made you smile?

****

Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week.  Why don’t you share it?  I hope you can join in!

Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas.  If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity.  Don’t smile about the misfortune of others.  Don’t smile in a way to excludes others.  Make sure a 12 year old can read it.

To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile.  Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ).   You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me).   Next week I will compile all of the Smiles and do a separate post of them on Monday morning just before the smile.  (I will shoot for around 7 AM EST).

55 thoughts on “The Weekly Smile for the 10th of August, 2020 #weeklysmile”

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  5. SHL2

    I find with the hummingbirds they have times of day you will see them more. Get your camera ready increase your shutter speed faster and sit and be as still as possible. When they go into the flower raise your arms and camera then wait one more time then start shooting. Make the most of your movement when they are into the flower or the feeder. I have stopped their action before but would have to look at the details on the pics to tell you how fast of shutter I was using.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks, Sonya. I think I was at about 1/150, so pretty slow for a long telephoto to begin with, and super slow for hummingbird wings… I think they visit our garden in the morning and evening, but I’ve seen them at high noon, and I’ve sat for a half an hour when I know I’ve seen them before… Oh well, maybe someday I will get their flight pattern down, and perhaps prepare the camera ahead of time ;)

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      1. SHL2

        I am never always ready. Yesterday about 10 blue birds were in the birdbaths. I grabbed my camera and went outside only to realize I had the wrong lens. I went back in exchanged the lens and by then there were 3 I am so frustrated.

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  8. dprastka

    LOVE your photos of the hummingbird. Your camera is amazing to catch it in action! WAY COOL!
    And I loved the bear encounter hearing more detailed story. I can’t imagine literally running into a bear! We have black bear in this state but they stay up in the mountains, and not near here. BUT we do have bobcats and mountain lions that are more local. Here is my smile for this week!
    https://myhorsestories.blog/2020/08/12/my-weekly-smile-aug-12-2020/

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Thanks! I do like my camera, but hummingbirds are pretty easy targets, though small… Seeing the bear was very cool. They are very common around here, though I almost never see them. Bobcats are fairly common as well, though I only saw one once, again while running. No mountain lions. Well, not an absolute ;) Some claim to have seen them, and occasionally a mountain lion will trek to the east coast! I’ll be by to see your smile in a few :)

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  10. Suzanne@PictureRetirement

    We have black bear in Florida too, (mostly North Florida) although I have never seen one up close. They don’t seem to be aggressive, but they have been known to nab dinner off the grille in some areas. As for the hummingbird photos – shoot first, think later. Sorry you lost your second chance. These are nice though.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      For the most part black bears are not very aggressive, but I wouldn’t want to mess with one! Sometimes I actually check out my camera settings before I start to take photos, but.. ;) I do like the photo, but the rest were very blurry. Hopefully I’ll be more prepare4d next time.

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  11. gdutta17

    Hello
    I happened to discover this weekend prompt and decided to put up a limerick of mine to try and elicit a smile. Here’s the link. Hope it meets the intent of the prompt. Thanks.

    gdutta17.wordpress.com/2020/08/11/limerick-tea-time-travails/

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Hi and welcome to the Weekly Smile :) Yes, a limerick is fine, though usually I am looking for something that you did, saw, heard or whatever in the last week that made you smile. A poem, like a limerick, or a photo, or a short story are OK as well.

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  18. Shannon

    The first time I saw a black bear I thought it was a dog at first too! When we lived in Conway there was one that would sit on the doorstep and look inside through the sliding glass door, but it always ran at the first peep from our (small) dogs. Love the hummingbird photo!

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      The bear playing peeping tom is pretty funny. I’m not too surprised about the small dog though – did you ever see the video of the bear chased up a tree by a cat? I’m sure you must miss the wildlife from moving out of NH. Thanks re: the hummingbird photos :)

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      1. Shannon

        I haven’t seen the video, will have to YouTube it! Plenty of wildlife in Florida, saw a young bobcat and some wild boar while hiking the other day, and always a surplus of reptiles! 🐊 NH is gorgeous but it’s good to be home. 😀

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I know a lot of people who swear by the feeders, so I hope it works in your case. I do know that hummingbirds like red flowers. I’m not sure what the ones in the photo are, but they really love them.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I’m not sure if I was at too safe of a distance ;) They say to never, ever run from a bear – they have a chase instinct, similar to dogs, and can outrun even Usain Bolt (maybe they are like a Ursus Bolt?). Hummingbirds are so fascinating.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Very cool to see it up close, but I don’t think this bear was all too happy to see me either ;) He certainly left in a hurry! I love seeing and photographing the hummingbirds :)

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Part of the smile is for coming out of it unscathed, though I never felt threatened in any way. Black Bears very rarely attack people. i do see deer occasionally when walking or running. I saw one yesterday pretty close to where I saw the bear. The deer often come out of the woods in back into our yard, and now I wonder if those days that the dogs act funny if there are bear coming in close as well…

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  27. joseph elon lillie

    These are amazing smiles. I have been driving back roads looking for a black bear down here. I know they are about, but I don’t want to meet one while running (well walking I don’t run). The hummingbirds are prolific this year.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      They are about, but they also know how to avoid people… As a kid, they were common sight on the side of roads in national parks since stupid people fed them, but that changed as it was dangerous for bear and human alike. I am pretty sure I saw one from the road while driving last year. I often think about them when deep in the forest hiking, but never expected an encounter like this so close to home!
      The number of hummingbirds in our flowers are always pretty high, but I’ve heard other people saw they’ve seen more.

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