My veggie garden, my wife's flower gardens are the most favorite places I want to be. Right now they look like winter stuff, I'll post pics when their up. We have an Indian corn grinder ( a piece of stone weighing about 4-500 lbs in the center, next to a 50+ year old Lilac bush, our deck is covered with wisteria, Virginia creeper, and grape vines. a Bartlet pear tree growing in the middle of the deck 50+ years old, 10 or so bluebird houses rented by house and carolina wrens. (hopefully) No place I would rather be

I've had a flock of waxwings here for maybe 5 days. Haven't seen them bother any other bird. All they do is eat the holly berries in front of my house and then poop on my car :) Linda...

It was definitely sticks. And, this morning our "Mom" returned. At least I'm convinced it's our original "Mom" as she looks identical. I'll know better when I can get some good pictures and if I can identify her. I'm pretty sure you are right as we've seen the babies bathing in the bird bath having a blast so they are still around! I was so excited to see her. And, I know we they don't have emotions, but do we really know for sure?!? :) We'll check on the other house and remove the sticks again. We've got lots of bird books and are pretty sure it is a House Wren. Plus my husband knows just about every bird, plant, tree, bug, etc. on the planet -- and probably off as well. I'm just a newbie!

I'm happy to share it. Once the birds get a taste of this, they will not go near the store bought suet. I use four cups of lard, two cups of crunchy peanut butter. Melt the lard, then mix in the peanut butter and let it melt. Then I mix in about a third of a cup of sugar, and add two cups of ground up, shelled, sunflower seeds. I grind the sunflower kernels until they're really well chopped. Then I add about 2 cups of white flour. For some reason the birds prefer this to wheat flour. Then I keep adding corn meal, a cup at a time, until I get the consistency I'm looking for. I like it firm enough to hold up in the wire holders, but crumbly enough that I can crumble some into a bowl for them as well. Hope this helps. All the birds love this, not just the Blues. You will also attract a lot of woodpeckers.