(Photography by Sue Dougherty)
Wildlife photographer Sue Dougherty has traveled all over the world seeking exotic animals and birds to photograph. Her favorite species, however, may be the smallest of all: hummingbirds. The combination of their speed and agility in flight, combined with their brilliant colors and unique behavior makes these little creatures fascinating. “Hummingbirds seem somehow magic to me,” she says. Her photos of hummingbirds and many other animals are showcased at Red Chair Gallery in February.
“The more I learn about hummers, the more I yearn to see and photograph them,” Dougherty says. They present serious challenges to the photographer because they are tiny (two to five inches in length), incredibly fast (up to 60 mph when diving and 30 mph flying forward) and acrobatic (they are the only birds that can fly backward). And then there is their spectacular plumage in a kaleidoscope of colors, particularly blues, greens and purples. Hummers only inhabit the Western Hemisphere and mostly reside near the Equator in countries like Ecuador, Costa Rica and Columbia. There are a few species, including Anna’s Hummingbird and the Calliope Hummingbird that migrate up to Oregon in summer.
Dougherty has made several trips to Central America to snap hummers. In many places, hummingbird feeders are set out in areas where it is easy to take photos. But last year, Dougherty trekked through the mountains of Ecuador to find unusual hummers in the wild. Those birds can live at altitudes as high as 12,000-14,000 feet. As she and her companions, all carrying tripods and cameras, traipsed upward in the thin air, they marveled at the hummers’ energy. “We were huffing and puffing and they were just zipping around,” Dougherty laughs.
As a retired veterinarian, Dougherty has an affinity for animals. She has combined her professional interest in animals with her love of photography to capture striking images from her wide travels. She’s shot walruses and polar bears in the Svalbard archipelago off Norway, big game in Tanzania and other African countries, wolves and buffalo in Yellowstone National Park, blue- footed boobies and giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands and gorillas in Rwanda. At home, she supports local fauna at Think Wild, a wildlife rescue service, where she is President of the Board of Directors. When I interviewed her for this article, she was taking a break from photographing surgery on an eagle that had been hit by a car. The nonprofit uses her photos to publicize its program to rehabilitate our own wildlife here in Central Oregon.