East Meets West: 01.2009

One thing I love about our home here in Sierra Vista is the view we enjoy from both the front and back yard. For instance, the sun sets in the front yard, and the moon comes up squarely in the center of our backyard. We have a great view of the mountains during the day and of stars (lots of shooting stars!) at night. The backyard also has a lot of bushes and trees--perfect for providing cover to many little songbirds. In turn, these little birds have been attracting owls and hawks. We've even had the privilege of seeing a coyote meander through the FBI field office parking lot behind our home in the middle of the afternoon. Never a day goes by without seeing some neat wildlife.

Because our trees are nicely located near the window, I wanted to hang a birdfeeder or two. Naturally, since Roxy and Kawaii (our kitties) became indoor cats, I also wanted to give them a reason to look out the window and keep them entertained. Unlike in Okinawa, hanging birdfeeders here is easy to do without feeling guilty that I am attracting prey to my beloved hunters!

I have never hung a hummingbird feeder before, but I had heard that Sierra Vista is the "hummingbird capital of America" so I wanted to put the slogan to the test. Thankfully Jared recognizes my "love of critters" (as he puts it), so he willingly helped pick out and purchase three regular "wild" bird feeders, three hummingbird feeders and two bird baths. He made me pledge an oath to clean the birdpoop off the back fence whenever the situation arose, and we situated our new items around the back and front yards. After making a homemade hummingbird nectar potion to fill the hummingbird feeders, we just waited...and it didn't take long for us to see some new friends (and for the neighbors to think we were stalking them and taking pictures of their backyard). You will need to click on the pictures individually to increase their size. Look for the red and yellow feeder to find the birds:

At least 6 different birds had a snack in a period of approx 45 minutes (look really carefully at their colorings/markings--they are all different birds)!! Hummingbirds are very territorial, but luckily, we never saw a showdown between any male birds while we were watching.

$10 to the person who can spot the hummingbird in this picture FIRST: