Whilst surfing the web last year I came across a piece of free firmware that came in mighty handy this spring called CHDK for my daughter’s Canon SX20IS camera.. I spotted a Broadbill hummingbird nest in a privet hedge. It had two tiny eggs in it and I thought it would be great to document the care and feeding of the hatchlings. I didn’t want to disturb them, nor did I want to spend all my waking hours waiting for a great shot, so, with this firmware “hack” I was able to make a time lapse photo every 10 seconds, automatically. I turned off any shutter sounds and plugged in an ac adapter and the camera silently recorded the action during daylight hours. Each night I took out the card and downloaded the photos to my computer. It was fun seeing what the camera recorded each day. Soon the birds got acclimated to my occasional presence and I was able to make periodic close ups with a hand held camera too.