In the midst of working on our Real Estate issue, I discovered a squatter on my property. Right outside my patio door, a hummingbird had built a one-inch nest on a delicate strand of jasmine vine. Delighted, I resolved to be an exemplary landlord, though I doubted the wisdom of her site selection. “Location, location, location,” I chided as my yapping dogs charging to their food bowls below the vine.

Pretty soon though, it was apparent this gal was a genius. In hummingbird terms, the nook she sheltered in boasted as many amenities as the Airpark. My clumsy canines, who couldn’t reach the nest, kept would-be predators at bay. When winds whipped the trees, mere breezes reached the vine, which swayed gently as a rowboat navigating ripples. When temperatures spiked unseasonably, the northern shaded exposure stayed cool.

Then two weeks after she moved in, my hummingbird tenant disappeared, abandoning what turned out to be a sole egg, the size of a Jelly Belly.

Maybe the heat finally got too much. But I had to ask asked myself if I had really been the sort of landlord I’d set out to be. Certainly I could have fed the dogs inside. It would have been easy also to switch off the security light that blinded her every time I opened the door at night (that’s how I got this photo—she couldn’t see me lurking below). And probably I shouldn’t have stalked the poor thing, gawking out my bedroom window first thing in the morning to see if she was still there, checking up on her a dozen times a day, and saying goodnight every evening before turning in.

If commercial real estate advisor Steve Cross consulted to the hummingbird world, I’m sure he would have had some pointers for both of us. You can read his seven rules for human tenants in this issue, which also (hurrah!) features the return of Jim Keeley’s Colliers Greater Scottsdale Airpark commercial real estate report, along with insights from other industry experts.

Here’s hoping your nest never empties until you want it to.

Kimberly Hundley, editor
editor@scottsdaleairpark.com