I need two of me, at least

My husband called from Alpine and said one of the two surviving ducks from last spring just hatched out 8 new ducklings. I so badly want to photograph them, but it'll have to wait until Thursday (be prepared). I can't even imagine how it'll look with 8 ducklings. I thought four was a lot last year.

And my granddaughter, in her 30s, had her tonsils out today and no way could I be there to help her. All she had was her mother-in-law. Her husband couldn't get off work, so the mother-in-law was at the surgery center with her while taking care of my two great-grandsons (her grandsons). But all are alive at the end of the day.

I didn't see much to inspire me to take photographs today. I'm pleased with my rue plant (Ruta graveolens).

I took some people down to see the male Lucifer Hummingbird on his territory today and he looked so bronze-colored that it seemed like a good excuse to photograph him (no, I haven't run out of excuses yet). To me it seems that Lucifers are more prone to color variations caused by the lighting conditions than other species are. 

Not only was he way far away, but I had to use manual focus because the camera wouldn't focus on such a small distant dot. And my eyesight isn't good enough to focus manually, but I was mainly trying to capture the color. It was fairly early in the morning when I took this.