Hello again, Tirthendu Dey, Thanks for the confirmation that Kolkata and Calcutta are the same. "Coming back to the bird issue. I tried posting photos but it's not displaying." What file format are you using to post your photos? I submit fairly compact JPG files, many of which are only 1000 pixels wide. Incidentally, I may have already mentioned this, but you can click on the photos here to see a large version and then click on the "X" in the upper righthand corner of the large version to close it. I use concrete remesh wire to make "zinnia cages" to help support my zinnias in our considerable Kansas winds. Those same cages, or something very similar, could be used to support some sort of fabric netting to exclude birds. You mentioned mosquito nets as a possibility. Another possibility would be Bird Netting (that is a link to offerings from our Amazon). I don't know if you have an Amazon, but you might have a company that sells Bird Netting. I make my "zinnia cages" from concrete remesh wire that comes in large rolls. I think the roll I used was 100-foot long by 8 feet wide. This was part of a roll I was using. We should try to figure out how you can submit photos here. I click on "Photo" in the message editing line and navigate to a directory on my computer where I have suitable photos and I click on one and click "Open" to trigger its transfer to here. This potentially changing ominous behavior of birds is almost like a science fiction movie plot. More later. ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)

Velvet, I am so sorry for your loss. I haven't always agreed with your advice and I think you and I exchanged some 'words' once, but it never crossed my mind to doubt that you had suffered a terrible loss or to criticise or mudsling. I know that some people in these forums will do that occasionally but I always know I can come here for help and sincere sympathy from the good people who post here. You are so well known in the forums you cannot help but find caring and empathetic words here. I am so truely sorry for your loss. Cheryl

Flowergardener, I've only begun to purchase from Song Sparrow Nursery, but was very pleased with my first three buys (last spring.) They all grew and bloomed well, for their first year in my garden. Klehm's sends large fans w/huge root systems! I'm always looking for late bloomers to extend my blooming season, so bought these: Intense Orange Gold. The picture doesn't show the true intensity. It's actually very vibrant. Huckleberry Friend. Ruffled peach-pastel cream, w/pink highlights, tall, late. Paul Voth. Dark burgundy-purple w/nearly black inner glow, and sunfast, tall, late. Julie

jillmcm: ...We have a very nice woods bordering the east side of our yard that we cleared to ground level, about 15 or so feet back, 8 years ago (accept for the trees and larger saplings and burdock ~ which I enjoy and respect too much to cut back). We leveled the area because the previous owners had used it as a dumping site for waste construction material, & it became a haven for poison ivy and the like. In fighting that nasty plant back off the ground and trees, we all went through a bad time with poison ivy. Worth it. There is now a flourishing old giant umbrella shaped maple [my favorite] & a beautiful holly tree in the back yard, that we transplanted in a prominent place after digging it out of nearly being smothered by poison ivy, as a reminder of that painful/itchy season of endeavor. We, then, just let nature reseed itself in any indigenous way it would, ...while tossing a seed or two in from time to time. Now itÂs thick, beautiful & willful of more space, ...& we are prepared to enhance it with fruiting vines and such...once we get a good list of the MOST effective plants. IÂm thinking wineberry, blackberry, blueberry, sunflowers, buckwheat, Jack-in-the-pulpit, bluebells, goldenrod & some kind of aster ...for starters. There are some cleome, lavender, alyssum, echinacea, coneflower and morning glories there already; I seeded them, ...but probably NONE are indigenous [chuckle] plants. ~You said, "Also, adding a water feature, even something as simple as a glazed saucer with water dripping into it from a suspended milk jug with a pinhole (what I have three of), will bring even more birds in."~ Our water feature is a large concrete bird bath with hanging plants suspended above & to the side; their long branches dangling into the water along the sides of the basin. Sufficient?...or should I install some sort of moving-water device? ~You said, "The only time we've had a mocker in our yard was during a hot spell when they came to drink and bathe."~ Not sure why that notion has gone over my head, ...unless you are speaking of the Northern mockingbird Mimus polyglottos...or the likes of the Blue Mockingbird spoken of in the following poem: http://www.lukecole.com/Birds/Smew.htm Sorry for the wordiness of this post, ...but you have inspired my imagination.