Barb, I can't see the ghost? I have a girlfriend in Ohio that moved into a house that she swears is haunted. She took a picture and captured the clearest photo of a ghost I've ever seen. She would not email me the photo to me, but when she came out to visit me she brought it with. She said she wanted to see my face when I saw the photos. It is incredibly bizarre. She tells me some of the ghost stories and it makes my skin crawl. I would pack my bags and move if it were me. ha ha. On an even stranger note. I think I've seen a UFO...twice now. Once when I was very young, the farmers around here were finding there cattle with the calves cut from the mother cows and big space ship depressions in the ground. During that time my parents were driving out to our farm and this bright light in the sky followed us all the way home. My mom was almost 9 mos. pregnant and lost her baby that night. They always wonder if it had something to do with these lights. I was to young to know better but to hear them talk about it...well it is just eery. Most recently, the past couple months, there were unexplanable lights while I was sitting in our hot tub...AND no...I was not drinking he he. It was not a plane and rather than move across the sky they hoovered awhile and then went straight up and eventually disappeared. Who knows what these things were. But interesting conversation anyways. I jokingly told my hubby they saw me in the hot tub and I scared the bee jeebers out of them...they will never come back now. ha ha. ~Tj~

Yep, this is prime migration time. According to hummingbirds.net in the Migration Basics section: "Some adult males start migrating south as early as mid-July, but the peak of southward migration for this species is late August and early September. By mid-September, essentially all of the Ruby-throated at feeders are migrating through from farther north, and not the same individuals seen in the summer." You still should keep your feeder filled for a while - there may be some late migrants coming through your yard and they'll be really hungry. Claire

Sept. 27: A juvenile male hummingbird stopped by! This is the feeder on my deck. I was sitting out there and the hummer was OK with me being there but got spooked when I pulled out the camera so I didn't get a good shot of the whole head and throat. You can see the mottled gorget. Typical teenager - waited to the last minute before migrating. Claire

Thanks everyone. It's so nice to have people to share my birding events with. Sue, I'm happy you're getting to enjoy the cardinals, too. They also relish the black oil sunflower seed, but then, so do the grackles. I'm fortunate in that I have very few grackles; right now I have 2-4 of them hanging around but I don't see them often. There are more here for a week or so during the spring and fall migrations. I take the BOSS and suet feeders down at those time. Lynn D, after Ms. Cardinal left, I called my Auntie in Arkansas to tell her about the sighting. As we were talking on the phone I could hear her cardinals singing the "purty purty purty" song. HappyTime CA...once "my" cardinals are established (I might as well dream big!) you'll just have to take a road trip and come out to visit them. Stick around Jaime LA. "We'll" get you hooked! If you could come out and watch just one nest check with the tiny Purple Martin hatchlings, you'd be a goner for sure! LOL NodakGal...You're welcome to come for "tea!" It's Lipton's finest, but I guess you can tell I did get wild and added some fresh lemon zest! Peg MN...When I was a child there was a large holly shrub next to my north-facing bedroom window. One year a cardinal pair made thier nest there. It was in the perfect place for me to be able to watch them from just a few inches away. They didn't seem to mind me peering through the window's sheer curtains.