Oh Masha! What a great service you offer us here at the OGR Forum. Your photography is absolutely stunning! I have taken the bait, will be purchasing Rosette Delizy this year! Can't stand not having this rose now that I've seen what she has done in your garden. Absolutely beautiful coloring! Thanks so much for sharing! I am forever grateful for your contribution to this gallery. Audrey

HTown, don't be too comfortable with them. I've been feeding the ones in our yard off and on for awhile, but I never get too close to them. No matter how "familiar" you may be with them, they still have an instinctive distrust for people and they have the potential to be dangerous. Most people don't like them because they've had bad experiences with them, just like many other types of wildlife that invade or wreak some form of destruction on their property, and that's completely understandable. They can also be aggressive towards pets. I made a point of mentioning to my neighbors that there were raccoons active in our area. If you get to feeding them and slack off, they could move on to another property where they're not as welcome and that could have negative consequences for the neighbor, the raccoon or both. I'm not saying don't feed or enjoy them, but make sure you educate yourself on them before you get into it on a regular or semi-regular basis. Make sure there are no means for them to access your house including the roof and chimney, because once they know where the food is coming from they could try to find an easier way to get to it. It's best not to leave food for them near your house for this reason. One of the first things I did when I knew how much they came around was make sure they couldn't get on our roof from any trees, the area around our deck was sealed, and our chimney cap was secure. I added chicken(Actually smaller gapped fencing than chicken wire) wire around the opening to ensure there was no access.(Something I was going to do anyway to deter the birds that ended up in our living room.) This link I found can cover it a little more indepth. These are just tips, but they can be helpful. Feeding Tips I guess my message is it's fine to enjoy them, but make sure you know what you're getting yourself in for, as there are a few things to consider. :-)

That is different from my experience. In my compost pile, I regularly see bluejays, ravens, and crows. Last summer I had moles in an almost finished pile, probably looking for worms. And I know I have nocturnal visitors from the evidence they leave: a bent wire fence, footprints in the snow, evidence of a bit of digging, or a tuft of fur left on the fence. (Edited to add photo.) IME the deer, chipmunks, turkey, and squirrels aren't interested in what's in the pile because the food is wrong for what they like, but scavengers are. In winter when the snow is deep, I don't see visitors other than birds, I think because most animals stay in a smaller home area when moving through snow makes them use up too much energy. But when deep snow isn't an issue, I've seen evidence of the coyotes, fox (one summer when she was raising kits nearby), and one memorable time I hope not to have repeated, a bear left fur on a very squashed fence. In city areas I know rats can sometimes be an issue, but they haven't been in my rural area. So some of your critters probably have other foods they prefer, but I don't know why your pile is undisturbed in times without deep snow.

Amy, I know I'm a weirdo, but I love the crows and feed them all they want. When I do that, they adopt our place as their territory and will spend the rest of the day chasing away hawks and kites that try to prey on our free-ranging chickens and turkeys. Stockergal, No, not really. All the birds cooperate fairly well here, an attitude that developed during the horrific drought of 2011 when everyone had to cooperate in order to get the food and water we put out or else they wouldn't survive. We sometimes joking refer to our place as The Peaceable Kingdom precisely because 99% of the wildlife try to get along and share food, or at least tolerate one another. When I look out a window at night and see possums, cottontails, coons and armadillos sharing an animal waterer and peacefully drinking together, it just makes me smile. I could stand and watch them for a long time, but if they look up and see me watching, it scares them and they take off. We only get roadrunners at the feeders and waterers during the worst droughts, and that year even the quail, roadrunners, painted buntings and other rarely-seen wild birds came and ate and drank together. I think they just were relieved to have a consistent source of food and water they could count on, particularly after all the creeks and ponds dried up. This morning I forgot to put out sunflower seeds for the cardinals. A little while ago, I looked up and one cardinal was sitting outside the kitchen window staring at me. I got the message and hurried outside to put out the sunflower seeds. When I came back in, that little cardinal left the window screen and went to join the others at the sunflower seeds. How smart is that? He not only knew he needed to make me aware that I forgot to feed them, but he also knew to come to the kitchen window to get my attention. I think these wild birds are a lot smarter than we realize. Hummingbirds are the same way. If they arrive before I fill and hang the windows, they come to the kitchen window. It amazes me how smart they are. If the feeder runs out of nectar and I'm in the garden, they come to the garden and fly circles around my head. Tim says I'm another Dr. Doolittle. lol. I just think that the birds are smart enough to figure out how to remind me to help them. Dawn