Susan, I'm mostly seeing Sulphurs, which we have in great profusion here, and also a few Question Marks and Commas. I haven't seen any Red Admirals yet, but we had a billion of them last year so I'm sure I'll see some before too long. We have a small handful of native wildflowers blooming, and the orange tree was blooming for the last 2 or 3 weeks but it is finished now. We have had high temps in the upper 70s a couple of times lately, and all the little flying critters came out of the woodwork like crazy on those days. On the day we hit 78 degrees, red wasps were out. We have the most honey bees I've ever seen out and about in January, and I hope that is a sign that the honey bee population is healthy and abundant this year. Helen, If I forget and leave cat food on the porch after dark, we have a steady stream of visitors, including armadillos, possums and coons coming to eat it. I try to remember to bring in the food at night so we don't encourage these varmints to hang around close to the house. We just have too much wildlife here. Last night I stepped out onto the back porch to call the cat who had not yet come indoors for the night, and there were three deer standing about 15 or 20' from the porch. I think they were coming to the side yard to eat any bird seed that the birds had dropped from the bird feeder to the ground. All the wildlife here is so hungry and has a hard time finding food they like at this time of the year. We have a yard full of cottontail rabbits every night. I'm not sure if they're eating bird seed or maybe the winter rye grass. Dawn

Sorry to post so late to this topic. I just found this place and created an ID just to answer this LOL. It is definately a mullberry tree. I am assuming the berries are white and look a little like strawberries? I have one and I get tons os Cedar Waxwings as well as Baltimoe Orioles and Robins. They eat the fruit until it is completely gone. The Mullberry tree is considered a weed to most but I love my tree. It is right near my porch and I spend a couple of hours every day watching the birds enjoying the fruit. The only downfall is that the berries fall off the tree and can make a mess. To me it is worth the inconvenience though. Mullberry is a favorite for many birds and if you have one in your yard the birds will be there from morning to night.

I have another wren in the barn and I will be sad if I see a pile of russet feathers. They forage around too low and aren't afraid. My cats live in the barn. My two crab apples have very small fruit like a berry. They have no disease problems and bloom reliably but briefly in spring. The apples are not the colorful attractive ones that are bigger, but they are a good size for birds. I saw two bluebirds in one of them yesterday also. These trees were planted years ago. They are white with pink buds, very small fruit and were sold as disease resistant. If you are getting one for birds, check that it has fruit that persists into winter and small fruit. I will look in my file and see if I can find the name because my trees have been trouble free for thirty years.

Fantastic photos of the bluebirds and waxwings together. That is luck to see them together, let alone get a good photo. We have waxwings here all summer, but so often they are high up in trees, most people don't notice them. They like black cherries, and when i canoe the river i see them flycatching alot. And congrats newyorkrita on your bird garden paying off. Glad the Wentworths were well used, so many people report birds not touching the highbush cranberries. I saw cardinals picking at them once, but i think they were only after the pits inside. I may have to think about planting a Cardinal Candy viburnum. Winterberries - ive never had those last late in the year. I had a robin that would camp out until they were all gone, in December.