When an old friend smarted off at his boss & got "laid off" 4 months before his retirement, he was in a temorary financial bind. so he scrunched down & absolutely stopped spending a dime... & his wife spent $300 at the grocery store. He was stunned & abashed & thought she'd lost her mind! I told him, "It's what we do in lean times; we stock up." (Everything worked out fine.) So I think the male/female difference must apply to other things, too, like composting, but there's also a personality or perspective or "brain" difference. Years ago I took a sales class about "The Four Personality Types". the instructor gave us a handy hint to remembering them by connecting them to the 4 main characters in the old Startrek tv series. Leader: must be in charge, must be the first, finds it easy to make decisions & take action. (Captain Kirk) Analyst or Engineer: must have data. When you provide this person with data, (s)he wants...more data. Decision-making is not on the agenda, but meticulous to brilliant analysis is, & you can take this person's analyses to the bank. (Spock). Social/Extrovert: talks to everybody, engages with everybody, operates from a basis of compassion & loves get-togethers. (Dr McCoy) Consultative or Family Type: wants everybody to be on the same page, seeks consensus (Mr Scott). Leaders will buy the biggest & the best & the newest of whatever it is, & will delegate responsibilities & get the job done. Analysts pore over technical information & take scrupulous notes, marking down core temps & listing every banana peel. Social types don't care how it gets done, let's all just go out there & pitch in & who's gonna bring the beer? (& what fun to add it to the pile!) Consultative types will mediate within the family or group, going from leader to analyst to extrovert, applying oil to troubled waters & making sure everybody gets whatever (s)he wants: leader gets praise, analyst gets sheaves of information, extrovert has fun, & the task/job/project gets done. It all works!

Well I just keep watching them this morning and they are both fliting all over down there, wing waving like crazy. The momma did finally figure out the mealworm feeder this morning. I have it clamped on a small 3 step stepladder and this morning I took it off and just put the dish on the stepladder and she ate out of there. Then I put the feeder back onto the ladder and put the dish in it and left. She flew to it and then away but later I saw her go into it. Yeah! I am going to check the nest today and see what if anything is up in there as I haven't checked it since Friday. I am still not convinced that this is the original male but then maybe I am just overreacting to things. Donna

OMG, this is so funny! The exact thing happened to me. We found a tiny kitten walking in our back yard. We took "her" in, even took it to our vet for check-up and the vet pronounced our cat a female. We gave her a unisex sounding name "Suki". But Suki then grew two furry things on her back end and started to "hump" blankets and even acted very affectinately toward our female (spayed) dog. It was so funny. But we explained to our kids and everyone "got it". It wasn't a shock. Don't worry. Just be honest. It's hard to tell when animals are so young. Even a vet can make a mistake.

Female seaberry blossoms are tiny, pale greenish worm-like threads, perhaps 1/4" long. Male blooms are like clusters of tiny coin purses. When you tap a male branch that is in bloom, you can see the pollen fly, especially when looking in the direction of the sun. The gender difference becomes obvious when you look at it with a fine eye. There might be a correlation between gender and bud spacing/appearance, I never pinned that down when I grew them, I just looked for bloom and pollen. Most literature states one male per eight females, you would have to research the recommended plant2plant spacing to figure out the dimensions. One local orchard had plants 5 or 6 feet apart, row spacing was 8 to 10 feet.Female blooms, above.Male blooms, above.