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Saturday, June 09, 2007

An amazing view

Our computer is in the living room of the house. We put it here for many reasons because we can:

  • keep an eye on what the kids are doing on the computer
  • watch tv while surfing the net
  • stay together as a family instead of one being in an "office" and everyone else in another part of the house
The desk sits in front of three windows that face our backyard. The monitor is in the middle of the middle window (does that make sense?) We have been doing a lot of work in our yard trying to make it bird friendly. In the back right corner we have a birdbath, bird feeders, blueberry and butterfly bushes, flowers... all kinds of things to attract birds.

A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to see if we could attract hummingbirds. My mom has a couple of feeders and when we go to her house, we spend hours watching them come and go. It is very relaxing and I wanted something like that here.

We bought a feeder and placed it on the edge of our patio (or gray concrete slab - whatev). Within a couple of days we had two hummingbirds visting on a regular basis. We could tell there were two because one is a gray/green and white color while the other looks the same but has a red throat (the male). They are beautiful! I would stand at our back door and watch them flit back and forth. They love Carl... the female will buzz him whenever he is outside filling up the feeder. It is sooo funny.

Here is the male in one of his first visits. He's sitting on Carl's tomato cage... isn't he tiny?!


Anyway. We bought another feeder because we noticed the male would chase off the female. We wanted to make sure she got something to eat as well. We put the feeder right outside the window where the monitor sits. To give you some perspective...


So now as I type or play games on my computer all I have to do is lean over an inch or so to the left and watch the most amazing sight. Humming birds (we now have two females that eat from this feeder) surviving on sugar water that we provide. They are graceful, beautiful creatures that make me smile and giggle whenever I see them. They help me relax after a long, hard day. They make me breathe easier.

This is one of "the girls" this morning. As I sit here typing, I am watching two of them flit and fly around the feeder.


Sorry for the blurry view... That is the widow screen...

I wouldn't change this view for the world.

8 comments:

Cup said...

First!

Now I need to go back and actually read the post ...

Cup said...

Lovely post. Watching birds is so relaxing, isn't it? I love lying on my bed and watching them flit about on the deck, singing to us, driving the cats crazy. You were smart to hang the feeders where you did.

katy said...

great photos of the birds, lucky you for being able to watch them as you surf

Biddie said...

I love birds too..That's probably why we have a dang blue jay IN the house..
I can't imagine anything more relaxing than watching humming birds flit about...It sounds lovely.

a/k/a Nadine said...

Well, now I must add hummingbird feeder to my must have list.

Marni said...

Nadine: go for it! You don't have to buy the nectar either. We boil 4 cups of water and add 1 cup of sugar. Let it cool and put it in the feeder. They LOVE it!

DJ Andi said...

I can't believe they relax you. They move so fast they make me tired. I think they are so cute though. I keep the bird feeders full and try to put nuts or something on the ground for the dang old squirrels. I know they got to eat too but they don't have to hog everything.

My cockatoo is a handful by the way. She's sweet and funny (sometimes), but she is very demanding.

Enjoy the hummingbirds, they are interesting little things aren't they.

CindyDianne said...

Oh that is super cool. I love hummingbirds. Every year we go camping up in the mountains in New Mexico and there are hummingbirds everyway - hundreds of them. We take feeders with us camping and hand them on our canopy so that while we are eating or playing cards we can see them up close and personal. Cool. I wish I had some at my house....