Hi Shirley! I would love to trade for some of your iris! I am open to any that you have listed as I have none of these and looking them up, realize I NEED them, lol! :) The list of iris I have to split right now is pretty long. So please check out my list and see if anything interests you. I also have: Coneflower: Ruby Giant Coneflower: White Swan Coneflower: Pow Wow Wildberry Hosta: First Frost Hosta: Honey Bell ...and some other things I can't think of right now to split. Just let me know what your interested in and I can narrow down my choices from there. :) Have a super day! vina ps. The mixed daylily seeds I got from you 2 years ago are flowering like crazy. They are ALL different and beautiful!! THANK YOU :D

Then THAT'S the answer!! I actually saw a sharp-shinned hawk a few weeks ago (first time I'd even seen one in our woods -- I was very pleased to be able to identify it). I didn't see this altercation until the two birds were "wrestling" in the snow and I'd have sworn it was one of the mourning doves atop the jay, but your theory makes much more sense. Whatever it was definitely carried the jaw off -- poor jay (and I don't love jays) dangling by its wing and squawking frantically. They both dropped into the snow (for a better grip?) a short ways from my garden, then took off again and only by chance (or an extreme fight by the jay or maybe, my frantic yelling??) did the jay get released. The jay flew back to our pine tree and seems fine. Is that possible? To get hauled off into the hair, hanging by one wing, and still live to tell about it? Amazing! Just curious, how large a prey will a sharp-shinned hawk take on? What about a small cat? Do I need to worry now that I know there's a sharp-shinned in the area? (My cat goes out midday, never out for long ... maybe I'll keep him in?!) Thanks so much for the information -- I am positive you are right. Now I feel guilty for blaming the doves... :(

They make that sound to communicate with family members but I don't know the meaning. I routinely discourage Blue Jays from coming around my front yard since they prey on song bird eggs and nestlings. I'd come to the window and shoo them away and used tube feeders they couldn't access, but last year they nested in the front Tulip Poplar tree, but so high I couldn't see them from the picture window. They'd come over the roof silently, keeping out of sight and silent. They even took the fledglings into the woods next to my bedroom window to teach them to fly. Since they weren't harassing the song birds in the front yard I didn't mind.

Hi Lorna! I don't spend much time over here, just checking out the different forums (though, I'm thinking I should, you guys have some AWESOME pictures!) I typically stay on the "gardening side." Not sure where you are Lorna, but around here (Colorado's Front Range, west of Denver) the Stellar's jays rarely come down out of the foothills and mountains, which are a few miles to the west of me. I saw a couple down here last year , but that was a BIG surprise to me! I had never seen them this low in elevation before, and they haven't been back since. I don't think they live east of the Rockies either, so, if you in that part of the country, they may not be in your area! BEAUTIFUL pictures! How do you get such fine detail and sharpness?!