Update on our birding activity - two weeks ago my wonderful husband installed a hummingbird feeder on my mothers bedroom window - she is pretty much bedridden and under hospice care now. We had already moved her bed around in her bedroom so she would have a full unobstructed view of the backyard and the birdfeeder station I mentioned earlier in this post. Well....that hummingbird feeder has given her so many hours of entertainment and she is not at all shy about letting us know when it is empty. She has stories to tell all the hospice home care nurses when they come about all the bird activity - this the view out her window of a hummingbird at the feeder this is her overall view out the window Lynne

Hello Everyone, I have spent my entire day reading on the bullfrogs. I started out with searching for ideas on how to turn a inground swimming pool into a pond and I got sidetracked. We have a pool we haven't used for years and it always has water in it. We have always had a frog in there from time to time, but this year we have seven bullfrogs. And, I think tey've moved in for good. Well, maybe we only have six now, I forgot about the poor soul that my cat and dog teamed up on last weekend. That created a project for my husband and I to make a surface to go inside of the pool with tiles for the frogs to bask in the sun on, instead of get out of the pool (which they still do). Up, until reading all the info on these forums about the bullfrogs, I loved them. Now I'm just not sure. My friends and family think I'm crazy. I haven't seen them eat any birds or other frogs, I do know that I'm always dishing out toads that fall in at night. I did at one time have thousands of tadpoles and then one day they were all gone. I guess the bullfrogs ate them. :( Anyway, reading this has been a hoot. I would attach a picture of two of them, but now sure how to di it!

Regarding the 4:1 sugar solution: the four to one mix (20%) is the standard but Marcia's three to one (25%) is used by some, especially in winter when freezing is a possibility. The higher concentration of solids lowers the freezing temperature of the liquid so it will remain liquid in colder temperatures. Refractometer testing of nectar from various "hummingbird plants" indicates that the sugar percentage of naturally occurring nectar ranges from 15% to greater than 32% (32% is the highest accurate measure for the refractometer used). The percentages vary by season as well as time of day. Although birds may feed on the flowers measuring 32%, many the blooms fed on will likely be of a lesser concentration, averaging in the range of our homemade solutions. The recipe for sugar water has always been 4:1 then boil for 2 minutes to kill any bacteria. Boiling isn't really necessary for sanitizing the solution. I boil the water before adding the sugar just to dissolve the sugar easier. If you keep extra solution in the refrigerator, boiling may extend its shelflife. The boiling free powders are just finely ground sugar that dissolves easily. I recommend against using any of the solutions or powders that have added ingredients. There is no evidence that any of these ingredients are necessary and the fact that there are many cases of birds feeding almost exclusively at feeders with no health issues indicates that there is not a long term problem with our feeder solutions. The female Rufous that has visited my yard for the past seven years migrates to the north Pacific coast for the summer and then returns to my yard for seven month of the year (August - March). My issue with the solutions without additives is mainly a case of money. How much sugar can you buy for the cost of one bottle of solution. It's like coffee at a restaurant. At a dollar plus a cup of coffee, you could buy a pound of coffee for the cost of 5-6 cups. How many cups of coffee can you make with that pound. Regarding Sarasota hummingbirds: If you first saw them in August in the past, that's what I'd expect this year as well. Areas near breeding birds are beginning to see the local young dispersing. If you don't have any local breeding, you can expect birds when migration of young birds and adult males begins in late July/early August. Migration lasts through September/October. It sounds like you were seeing migrating birds last year. It may have seemed as though they were the same birds but you likely saw a regular turnover of birds. The "experts" like to suggest that these birds don't stay longer than 2-3 days but I believe some of these birds stay much longer. I would like to see fall banding of hummingbirds to confirm the timeframe that they stay but it is almost impossible to get them in the cage with the abundance of flowers around. Regarding summering birds south of Tampa: I received a report of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird nest on the Big Cypress Bend boardwalk (Collier County) a few weeks ago. The observer documented it with photos and video. Steve Steve Backes Valrico, FL backes1@verizon.net http://mysite.verizon.net/resu64md/yardhummers/ http://floridahummingbirds.net/ http://floridahummingbirds.proboards.com/ Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Hummingbirds Forum

It's a free micro-blogging service; see wikipedia definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter I put it on my "twitter" feed at http://itweet.net/web/ where I am "rachelbirder" if you do a search People can sign up on https://twitter.com/signup but usually use other applications. They can get their interests flagged at http://wefollow.com/ or add "hashtags" to make their messages seen to others with similar hashtags, i.e. #birders, #birdwatching, #horses, etc.