[pileated woodpecker call]
There's something I want o show you.
AT THEIR EAST TEXAS LAKE CABIN NEAR LIVINGSTON
SID AND SHIRLEY RUCKER HAVE FOUND A UNIQUE WAY
TO CONNECT WITH NATURE.
I think we have a woodpecker up on that tree.
THEY HAVE LONG BEEN BIRDWATCHERS...
It's always exciting when we see a pileated in our yard.
One time we had momma, a daddy, and a new fledgling.
BUT THIS COUPLE DOES MORE THAN JUST WATCH BIRDS...
Do you see it?
ESPECIALLY HUMMINGBIRDS.
SID AND SHIRLEY GO TO GREAT LENGTHS TO CAPTURE HUMMINGBIRDS
IN FLIGHT.
IN PHOTOGRAPHS.
We consider 'em our little feathered friends.
It looks like a lot of stuff.
And it is.
WHAT BEGAN WITH A SIMPLE SNAPSHOT OUT THE WINDOW...
It probably takes us a half a day to set all this up.
HAS BECOME A 2nd CAREER OF SORTS FOR THE RUCKERS.
If we worked this hard at a real paying job
we would be well off. --No telling what we would make.
[music]
Everything has to be fairly precise.
I need about 17 inches to the bird.
IT'S A TECHNICAL PURSUIT.
The flashes go anywhere from a ten thousandth of a second
to twenty thousandths of a second.
BUT CAPTURING BIRDS IN FLIGHT IS CLEARLY ALSO AN ART.
That's really not going to work.
No, it needs to be lower.
We don't shoot any trapped birds.
They come and go at the feeders as they choose.
They're all free-flying birds.
Now is the final tuning.
Okay.
We learned by trial and error.
We just moved the light stands around until we'd get the light right.
About on the money.
Just experimenting around 'til we got our technique.
We want them on this side of the feeder
so we block up all the holes on the other side.
WITH ALL THE EQUIPMENT
AND THE PHOTOGRAPHER IN PLACE,
ONLY 1 MORE THING IS NEEDED.
Just sit and wait.
PATIENCE.
[music]
The ruby-throat hummingbird, that's the only one we have here.
When it leaves the Texas coast, it flies 600 miles
non-stop across the Gulf to Mexico.
And if you do your math,
it flies about 30 miles an hour, the wings beat 50 times a second.
The wing beats over 3 million times on a non-stop migration.
Impressive, I think.
JUST AS HUMMINGBIRDS MIGRATE EACH YEAR TO AVOID THE COLD,
SID AND SHIRLEY MIGRATE IN THEIR MOTOR HOME
TO ESCAPE THE SUMMER HEAT.
We pack up and leave the heat and the mosquitoes
and go where it's cool and dry.
AND WHEN THEY TAKE OFF,
THEY CARRY THEIR STUDIO WITH THEM
TO PHOTOGRAPH HUMMER HOTSPOTS IN THEIR TRAVELS.
ONE PLACE THE RUCKERS STOP MOST EVERY YEAR
IS DAN BROWN'S HUMMER HOUSE SOUTH OF SAN ANGELO.
It's really spectacular.
Probably five or six thousand hummers here.
I had no idea what I was getting into.
This started out as a hobby feeding hummingbirds 45 years ago.
TODAY DAN AND CATHY BROWN MAKE THEIR RANCH MORE ATTRACTIVE
TO HUMMINGBIRDS AND ALL SORTS OF WILDLIFE.
We're feeding 4 gallons of sugar water a day.
AND THE WILDLIFE DRAWS OTHER VISITORS.
We will have about 1000 people
through our observation room a summer.
-Look! There's a hummingbird! -Do you know what kind it is?
This is a very large feeding and nesting site
of black-chinned hummingbirds.
It takes 7 of these little birds to weigh 1 ounce.
So agile, they're remarkable birds.
THE RUCKERS, OF COURSE, ARE HERE FOR THE PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES.
If you want to shoot black chins,
this is probably the best place in the United States.
AS THE SUN GOES DOWN,
SID SETS UP WHERE HE HOPES BIRDS WILL BE TOMORROW.
Those are not going to work.
EVERY PHOTO SHOOT
Too high.
PRESENTS A BRAND NEW SET OF CHALLENGES.
So, we'll go to plan B.
FLEXIBILITY IS THE KEY.
Have these little fellers just for situations like this.
TODAY FLEXIBILITY MEANS NEVER RUNNING OUT OF PLANS
Still too high.
I'm going to go to plan C.
...OR STANDS.
That's not going to be high enough.
I may have to back to plan B.
I don't think this is going to be high enough.
[sigh]
We have long days out there.
But, we like it.
A BRAND NEW DIGITAL CAMERA
PRESENTS 1 MORE CHALLENGE.
There's all kind of settings.
I think we're going to like it
once we can get it figured out.
Okay.
Going to be out here ready to go by 6:30 in the morning.
Different people have different callings.
We like this.
A son-in-law loves to sail in his free time
and Sid says I just cannot see sitting in that boat
sailing around all day.
And he says, well you know I can't see sitting all day behind a camera
waiting for a hummingbird.
Well, we're trying to photograph
black-chinned hummingbirds bathing or drinking water.
But the hummers aren't cooperating this morning.
IT DOESN'T ALWAYS PAN OUT...
Now what's wrong with this silly thing?
BUT THAT MAY BE WHAT KEEPS IT INTERESTING.
It's the challenge of what we may capture on film.
Well let's try the misters.
We don't hear sirens.
We don't hear squealing tires.
It's all nice and quiet and peaceful out there.
The birds get up at daylight and they go to bed at dark
and we just like it out there.
We have a couple of slide shows that we do.
Shirley and I spent 4 or 5 years photographing hummingbirds
for the book "Hummingbirds of Texas."
I would really like to tell you that I took the picture
but alas, Shirley took that.
Most of the pictures in thereů
The albino here--
ůhave a story.
--was taken at Dan Brown's Hummer House.
They're really very rare.
We tailor the presentation to the size of the audience
and the type of audience.
Look at that forked tail on that thing.
BUT WHETHER PRESENTING TO BIRDERS OR PHOTOGRAPHERS
We thank you all for coming this afternoon.
THE SLIDES ALWAYS SEEM TO LEAVE AN IMPRESSION.
It brought tears to my eyes.
And in shooting hummingbirds for a couple of years now,
you have to capture the behavior of the birds
and Shirley and Sid have just done that beautifully.
AND EACH TIME SOMEONE BUYS THE RUCKERS'
"HUMMINGBIRDS OF TEXAS" BOOK,
ROYALTIES FUND THE TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE
HUMMINGBIRD WATCH PROGRAM.
SO IN THAT WAY, SID AND SHIRLEY RUCKERS' PASSION
FOR THESE SMALL WONDERS HELP ENSURE THAT THERE WILL ALWAYS BE
HUMMINGBIRDS TO ENJOY, ADMIRE,
AND YES, PHOTOGRAPH.
I cannot foresee that we'll ever stop until we have to.
We won't choose to quit doing this.
That came out good, didn't it?
Yeah, I remember this one.
We're always trying for something better
and something different.
Better light, better composition, better exposure,
better this, better that.
We're always wanting more.
You just have got to keep taking and keep taking and keep taking
and once in awhile you get one of those wing-dingers.
And that's what we're trying for.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HUMMINGBIRDS
OR THE TX HUMMINGBIRD ROUNDUP CITIZEN SCIENCE PROGRAM,
VISIT THE TX PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT WEBSITE.