Lin and I live in the east mountains above Albuquerque, New Mexico in the piñon pine trees at about 7100 feet and have had the pleasure of hummingbirds over the years, and this ones a good one.. Lin is the driving force behind our hummingbird attraction–he diligently fills and refills the feeders to attract these magnificent miniature birds.
Every season is different. A couple years ago, he fed 1000 hummingbirds a day, and they kept him busy filling the feeders, then last year we had hardly any.
This year started out slow but the crew finally arrived about a month ago and now he’s feeding between 600 – 700 birds a day, so we have a feeding frenzy at times.
Lin moved the feeders on our upper deck out the patio door of our bedroom because the bears love the sweet nectar in the hummingbird feeders. These little lovelies rise early, so the feeding frenzy in the morning often wakes us up to their squeaky sounds.
There’s nothing more relaxing than a break from the day and sitting quietly on this deck. They scatter when I first go out there but returned quickly once they feel safe, and then the show starts. The Rufus hummingbirds push and shove the others away from the feeders and scatter those gathered around a feeder, but they come back after a while to try again. They swarm, they drink and often one flies near me.
Lin has added hummingbird attractive flowers in his garden and I’m sure that’s the reason they have returned in droves.
Enjoy the hummingbird scenes from our house looking west towards the back side of the Sandia Mountains.
UPDATE: There’s been discussion about the species of hummingbird we have up here, so my husband thinks we have Rufus, black chin, and ruby red throat. What species do you have?
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Do you feed hummingbirds? Wildlife? Let me know–it’s a quiet, refreshing joy to be a part of nature this way.
Larada Horner-Miller is a poet, essayist and accomplished multi-genre author who holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in Spanish and a master of education degree in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. She is the accomplished author of six award-winning biographies, historical fiction, memoir, and poetry works plus three self-published cookbooks.
Her sixth book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?, is available in paperback and four e-book formats. Larada offers the reader the opportunity to look back at 2020 and the global pandemic through her prose and poetry through reading, then reflecting and responding. She addresses all the emotions she felt during this overwhelming time and leads the reader through to a self-access: bitter or better?
Her fifth book is the authorized memoir and biography of world-renown square dance caller Marshall “Flip” Flippo. Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo is available now in hardback, paperback and four e-book formats. Recently Just Another Square Dance Caller won two awards: Book Excellence Awards Finalist and Silver award for eLit. Book Awards.
Another recent book of hers, A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter's Grief Memoir has won many awards including being a 2018 Book Excellence Awards Finalist in the Memoir category at the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards and a 2018 Independent Press Distinguished Favorites Award in the Memoir category. Horner-Miller has also been a past national presenter at the Women Writing the West Conference and is currently the creator of Memoir Workshops for others who want to share their family’s legacies through words.
Larada and her husband, Lin, enjoy being nestled in the mountains above Albuquerque, New Mexico, near the village of Tijeras. When not writing books, this passionate, energetic, and enthusiastic woman loves to spend time kicking up her heels at square dancing gatherings, traveling, knitting, and reading.
As co-manager of her family’s southeastern Colorado ranch, she enjoys spending time exploring her family’s historic ranch and reminiscing with her brother and his children about their mom, dad, and granddad.
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