Nope, definitely not Euonymus europaeus. The berries weren't arranged or as numerous as on the photos I looked at of the euonymous. The leaves on this tree were thick and waxy, very glossy. I'm certain it was an evergreen. I'm sure it gets more beautiful in my memory as the time goes on :-) It probably was some type of holly. I don't think it was a Yaupon holly. The edges of the leaves seemed to be reflexed back. For all I know, it wouldn't grow in either PA or FL, so if I never ID it, I'll survive. But I do appreciate all the knowledge and guesses shared. Sorry I didn't take that photo! Marcia

He said they were large. I get so confused with these swallowtails. You would think by now I would be able to tell the difference without a doubt since I have raised most of them. I just saw "Something" nectaring on my pentas - It is either a female Spicebush, which is what I think it is, or a female Eastern Black. I know that the female EBS has less yellow than the male and more blue. However, it is the shape of the wings that confuse me. I have had female EBS that have the same shape as the male, then I have also watched a female EB that had the same shape wing as the Spicebush. The EBS' front wings seem to be wider than the hing wings to me but this one I saw yesterday laying on my Parlsey had much squarer wings to me. The reason I went out to watch it was several Polydamas were chasing this one butterfly, almost in the same dancing way they have went they are ready to mate, Circling and spiraling up in the sky. But this was much lower to the ground so that the one being chased was almost being kept down so it couldn't fly. By the time I got out there, the Polys had flown on and the one being chased flew off the ground and over to the parlsey and she laid eggs so I know she was an EBS.

There is a mature 12 to 15 ft Ponderosa Lemon tree growing well about 4 miles from me. It produces loads of thick skinned navel style lemons, similar to Italian lemons, which I understand are even hardier and will grow here in Eastern North Carolina. 3 years ago the owner rooted over 100 cuttings, which he sold ready potted. I bought several at $5 a pot. These were 1 to 2 foot tall small trees, which is pretty good value. I kept one for myself and gave others as gifts and also work colleagues were paying for them. Unfortunately, I planted mine in an exposed area, open to the north wind and quite honestly didn't look after it like I should have. It died after 2 years. In the ensuing years I have driven past the mature lemon tree to have a gentle nose. Particularly in the winter. We have had temps around 20F and slightly below and yes it does it appear to have died back on some of the branches after such cold weather, but it springs back to life again come 'Spring'. It is semi-exposed to the weather, being behind the main house and in front or to one side of a shed. The owner doesn't dress the tree for frost protection and it seems it has to be 20F at least before die back occurs. I guess I know it's there and that i can always get another small tree from him, so I haven't bothered re-visiting the notion. Instead, I am growing an Owari Satsuma. It's been in the ground since March and doing well, of course it hasn't gone through winter yet. The Owari satsuma is a spindly specimen and nothing like the orange trees that we had in Arizona. I have planted this in a south facing location with staking and tying and with some degree of protection from the north wind, about 15 feet from the back of the house. Safer would have been directly against the back of the house, but then there's the house foundations to consider. Anyway, all I can say is that lemons and they are 'true' lemons are alive and well here in Eastern North Carolina, half way between Richlands and Jacksonville.

April 3 is the end (of counting, anyway - the feeders stay up for me). sooey: I always have low numbers of chickadees and titmice; It's rare for me to see three at a time. They're in the woods here, so I don't know if I have 50 birds coming single-file or whether most of them don't bother with the feeders. They almost always swoop in to grab a bite and then eat it in a nearby tree. Sometimes I can tell if there's two by the direction they come in (one from the left, one from the right, one from the left, one from the right....) It's interesting also that all three of us have roughly equal numbers of Pine Siskins and American Goldfinches. During the big siskin invasion the goldfinch numbers went way down, as if they had left the premises. Now that there are fewer siskins the goldfinches have come back. The first few times I got equal numbers I worried that I was miscounting the birds and I obsessed over counting with field glasses and photographing them, but I finally decided the numbers were correct. Maybe this is some sort of a natural balance of what each species will tolerate nearby? and/or the capacity of the sock feeders? There are mixed flocks at the socks, but usually the goldfinches come first and then the siskins later. On another note, I'm wondering about the capitalization of bird names issue. I have no problem with capitalizing American Goldfinches and Pine Siskins as definitive names, but I would prefer to just say goldfinches and siskins as generic terms. Besides, it's a pain to capitalize and type out the full name when there's no confusion as to what I'm talking about. What do you guys think? Claire (who is known as claire on GW where there's only one of me with this particular name. If there were other GWclaires, it would be different....)