LOL!!! yeah, parrots are a wee bit noisier than 'keets. and mine are small parrots- not the ones who can REALLY make noise. they give so much back, though- they are like extra kids. funny, smart & silly, they keep life interesting (and aggravating sometimes). not to mention makng my ears ring. :) i'm 36, so i have seen some d.v.d. shows, but it was when i was small. never saw that episode. i'm thankful my jays mostly stay up in the pines and leave me and my songbirds be. they & the crows have scream fights up there sometimes. i've had corpulant cats before, and know how hard it is to get them to slim down. they simply aren't interested. the only way i ever found was to limit what they could eat- fed them once a day, as much as they were supposed to eat for the day, rather than a bowlful they could eat at will. when we moved here and they were allowed outside during the day, they slimmed down a lot just from the extra excercise. they've been gone a while now, and i miss them, but with allergies & asthsma, and now birds, we won't be getting more. tam

Tisha, I can't imagine why they haven't found your yard. Have you asked your neighbors if anyone ever has any hummers? It seems if they are around the neighborhood, they'd stumble across your yard at some point, especially since you have feeders out. They do eat insects, and feed the insects to their young as well, so if you happen to live in a neighborhood where a lot of people regularly use pesticides, or where the city or county routinely sprays for mosquitoes, that could be impeding your insect population which might cause the hummers to go elsewhere looking for the insects they need. We have had a whole lot of hummers here in Love County--many more than usual. I'm not seeing as many right now, but that is probably because they are hatching and caring for their young. Once the little ones begin to fly, it gets busy again. I still see them, but just not as often as I was about 3 weeks ago. The times I am most likely to see them are early in the morning, shortly after sunup, and then in the evening, not too long before sunset. I guess they are coming to the feeders for breakfast and dinner, but apparently not for lunch. Sometimes I put up a patio mister for them and they come and either play in the mist or bathe in it. A sprinkler also will attract them. Don't give up. Keep the feeders out and keep your eyes open. I think they'll find you sooner or later. Dawn

Oooh exciting Donna! Hope they stick around for awhile! My Blue family left over a week ago, not to return. However yesterday I had a female blue eating out of my mealworm feeder. I do not think it is from the family we had here this summer, they always came in as a family. I am starting to think it is the female from last summer. She is with a male and they are vigourously going in and out of nestboxes and I have only seen the female come up and eat, not the male. Last years female lost her mate at the end of the season before they left for the winter. At least now some of my waxworms are getting eaten since I bought 500 just before my family left. Last years family (only one surviving fledgling) would come and eat the waxworms only and leave the mealworms. This one at first ate mealworms since I had taken the waxworms out but as soon as I saw her I put out more waxworms and she is now eating the waxworms and not touching the mealworms at all. My family from this summer would usually eat some of each when they visited the feeder. So anyway, I am with you having fun watching a bluebird pair, not knowing really for sure if they have been here before or not. Donna

My Purple Martins should be here in Larimore the very last days of April or the first week in May. I will have the gourds up and filled with clean pre-nests by April 15. I seal off the openings with duct tape until the day they arrive. I set out nectar feeders on April 15, too. I won't have any humming birds, but I use the large oriole feeders with large feeding ports so the orioles, woodpeckers, finches, etc. can all enjoy the nectar. And, just in case there's an early bird hummer, he'll have some food, too!