Oh, cool, Beth! I haven't seen any migrants yet. This is a common yellowthroat. A small warbler fond of roadside ditches and the like. Often seen down low in shrubs and grasses. He's a year-round resident throughout Florida, but not so often seen in a backyard garden. Nice photo!

Marcia

Beth,

Sounds like you're really enjoying the garden critters, too cool. Sure sounds like you have mealybugs too. If so, you're in luck because that would be fairly easy to treat. Go to Starbucks and get a 5-8lb bag of the free coffee grounds, put it in a stocking and seep that in a 10 gallon bucket of water for five days. Put the mix in a garden sprayer and spray them down good...if they are mealybugs they'll be dead within 10 minutes without harm to you plants or environment.

Tom

Wow, Tom...I didn't know that! Thanks for sharing the info. It's infinitely preferable to spraying malathion. At least to me, it would be.

Marcia

Tom, I LOVE the critters (except for the legless ones!) Binoculars are a standard on the table with the morning coffee. Coffee grounds!! oh....that's great! I thought the coffee grounds had to be sprinkled on the soil and it would take til next year for it to work! Hope I can get by starbuck's tomorrow,but I'll start by using our grounds here.....

Thanks, Marcia. I recognized this lil common yellowthroat from your info last year, but the other one that I saw this morning (and couldn't get a picture)..I'm unsure of...maybe I'll see it again tomorrow.

Hope you can capture it, Beth. It will be fun to see what you've got!

Marcia

Beth, one other point that I wasn't clear on above, you only need 1-2lbs of the coffee grounds to seep in 10 gallons of water...take the rest and just spread them around the garden.

Tom

Some Dunkin Dounuts will give them to you too. And I use the ones from the morning coffee too. But I haven't tried the sprayer trick yet, but I will. Thanks for the info. What about left over coffee diluted?

I was wondering the same thing, Kathy. Can you just brew a batch of coffee and dilute it way down? I don't drink it, but Mark does, so we always have plenty on hand, and it seems like that would be a quick way to make a small batch, if it would work.

Marcia

I'm not sure but logically it makes sense, although I think there's something to letting it seep a few days. Below is Tom's (Cycadjungle) original article on the use of coffee grounds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Coffee grounds for mealybugs

Hey, while you are there at Starbucks there get a blended strawberry lemonade (an icee type drink, not too many calories. Hmmm...good. ) My son is a manager at one locally and we need to keep them busy! Just kidding.... they are really good about conservation and going green, have given away coffee grounds long before anyone else did.

Hummmm, I'll have to try that, sounds yummy. Since I don't drink coffee I'm always looking for other things to buy there...I'd sure hate to see my local store be one of the ones put on the chopping block.

Happy Saturday everybody, time to get in the garden :-)

I've had tons of butterflies as well, but haven't seen any pretty birds yet. It usually is later on when they get down this far. I know it's winter when I wake up to a cacophany of bird voices from my oak trees. I've had flocks of blackbirds, crows, robins, and more. I just love it!

Does anyone know if the coffee grounds work on White flies?

Also try the African Red Bush tea at Starbucks, nice hot dirnk and the Carmel Apple Cider is really good on a cold night.

I noticed a horrid trifecta of mealy, scale and white fly on a well loved anthurium on my porch last weekend. Blasted them off with the "mist" setting on my hosehead.

I must say it is well worth the money to get a nice hose head at Wally World or Target. Hold out for the one with "Powerwash" (great for the birdbath) and "mister" plus another 6-8 settings.

Next, I'll be washing that anthurium w/ coffee - thanks for the recipe tom/cath!

How cool!
Just yesterday morning as I sipped my coffee out on the lanai, I heard the Mockers...they're back as well and I'm ecstatic. I just love to hear their lovely songs.

Today, I took down my one-and-only bird feeder as the squirrels figured out how to jump from the neighbors Mandevilla to the top of the feeder.
No sense in feeding them plus, all I ever got were MoDo's...I left the pole in place and mounted a suet feeder cause I hear and see woodpeckers all the time.
Maybe they'll find the suet cakes!
I also got out the ladder and trimmed back the Mandevilla.

Come on Woodpeckers! LOL

have seen a new little woodpecker - think it's a downy, as well as our regular sapsuckers, I think?? LOTS of blackbirds back and mocks, bluejays have been here all summer, along with TONS of tiny sparrows. Saw two other 'new' birds - tiny, it wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get any kind of id and another one - very small and yellowish - maybe a palm warbler. Anyway, LOVE that the air is full of bird song! As for the mealybugs? The coffee is brewing, but I'm getting some 'looks' from the family here. I just tell them that as long as we drink coffee, the mealy bugs will stay off US !!!!

I'm itchin for the yellow finches - didn't get many last year but hoping for more this time....have not yet seen the painted bunting, either...it's early yet.

Lellie, sapsuckers are only in Florida in the wintertime. You might have your woodpeckers reversed, as it is just now getting to be sapsucker season, while the downies are here year-round. Downies are smaller than sapsuckers and marked differently. You will often hear their high little call, where sapsuckers seem to me to be much quieter. Probably because birds don't usually call a lot in the winter, and that's when they are here. So it makes sense.

The goldfinches will not be as colorful during the fall migration as they become during the spring one. They are done mating and will be molting out the yellow and turning grey for winter, as they head farther and farther south. You will see them with varying degrees of yellow splotching as they complete the molt. But just you wait until spring. The last two years, they have stayed in my yard until they were almost completely switched to the bright yellow and black breeding plumage. Then they headed north to nest.

I'm attaching a link to a post on woodpecker ID's for you. You might find it helpful in determining which ones you have in your garden, and you can compare the downies with the sapsuckers. (SO glad the archives are back!)

Marcia

Here is a link that might be useful: Woodpeckers In The Garden

Sorry, Beth...I was responding to YOUR post about the woodpeckers. Didn't mean to address my reply to Lellie! But I'm sure you figured it out already!

My apologies!

Marcia

GURRRRRRRLLLLLLLLLLL...you need more coffee...hehehehe!

No coffee for ME...I'm a tea drinker, all the way! *dainty sip, here, savoring the Earl Grey!* But you are right...my brain is definitely still caffeine deprived. My one shot of it a day, and I haven't even finished it yet.

Marcia

GREAT pictures, Marcia, of the woodies. I missed that one. Anyway...what I have here (most all the time) would be the red-bellied woodpecker! and then, the little would most likely be the downie. I love 'em. The woodies rap on the aluminum gutter to let me know they're there. Um..I hate to confess the grocery bill for raw peanuts, bread and birdseed. I think I'll have to give up wine before those treats! NOT COFFEE, tho. Thanks for your help...maybe I can LEARN that I have red-bellied woodpeckers! :)

Red bellieds are a lot of fun, Beth. They are one of the few woodpeckers that will actually come to a seed feeder. They love sunflower seeds and peanuts, as you have probably found out. And as the most common woodpecker in Florida, they are the ones most often seen in backyards and gardens statewide.

Have you noticed that when they are at the feeder, the other birds wait until they are gone before coming for seed? They have a wicked sharp bill and are very determined to feed alone whenever possible. It's amazing that a bird that strong and dominant can be thrown right out of their nesting cavities by the non-native starling. Nature is so interesting!

Marcia