"I ahve to say you ladies are REALLY good, maybe we should skip to the first fall warblers???? " Ladies, we are in trouble. Check your Peterson guide on confusing fall warblers to bone up for the challenge! Actually the guide is pretty good by putting them in sub-sections by field marks and color. You can then proceed by process of elimination until you get down to the correct bird. Then check the Cornell's site for other photographs for further positive ID markers. Local variations and light in the photos make if tougher too but if you find most of key ID points it is probably that bird. According to my SMAS group the Blue Jay is considered partially leucistic, not albino, and is exhibiting other feather abnormalities related to genetics. In another communication, Arlene Ripley commented that she has seen many albino birds but none have exhibited the fur-like structures of this Jay's feathers. I did some of my own research on fur-like feathers and every site pointed to something called proto-feathers which were exhibited by some early dinosaurs before true feathers emerged. It's exciting to imagine this bird may be exhibiting an ancient genetic throwback to prehistoric times which upholds the common belief that birds evolved from dinosaurs as they first took flight. There has been a call to ask everyone on the local site if there is a scientic name for this feather anomaly and this call comes from a man that works for the Smithsonian Institute and really knows birds. So far, no reponse, so the local bird community here may be stumped. There was sentiment regarding hope the bird survives. Jean, has this bird been a regular at your feeder for any length of time in which one could make the assumption it has survived nature with this variance? Arlene suggested the photo be posted on websites dedicated to leucistic and albino birds and see if more information could be obtained from readers. PapaSmurf is a rare Blue Jay indeed. CT

Ha, postage size yards... that would be me. I live in New York City, proper, so this is a big yard comparatively. It's roughly 30x30 feet in the back. We have about 16 roses in the back, and 3 on the side. This is their 3rd year in the ground, so just starting to get to a good size. I do a 2 step cleanup for the roses, the first cut is usually late November. Just enough for good measure for winter, usually once most of the leaves have dropped, and I'll do another shaping in early march. I put mulch on after I've done any requisite fall bulbs. But we have such a small space, I garden very intensly, I've dug a lot of organics in, made somewhat of a raised bed with rocks I dug out of the ground, so the point in relation to the pruning, is that in a good year, these roses get gigantic, even though it's North facing (in summer it gets full sun 12 hours a day). Most are hybrid Teas or similar high maintenance, particularly because they are so close and get drip irrigation, there's always plenty of moisture. The first cleanup takes about 3 big garbage bags after I've tied up the stems and cinched them tight in burlap so they won't cut through the bags. It takes me most of the day with other various cleanup tasks. We're looking to start a family and get a larger house with yard, so I'd be taking most of these with me, and revert it back to grass or similar low maintenance plants. I love the roses, but I need more space for them. You can see the progression over a year in the pictures below. Each picture links to a collection you can see more pictures at that time of year. The pictures are "roughly" March, May, June, September. Each link goes to the collection. I've ommitted the July-August picture, because honestly with the veggies, you can't even see the roses! It's so overgrown... June is the prettiest month, nothing else has caught up yet.

I'm still exploring suet options: last Sunday was a good day at the latest version suet feeder. The Red-bellied Woodpecker is standing on a suet cage or maybe a branch, but eating out of the old pine cone which had suet/peanut butter mix. This is the first time I've seen the Red-belly on the suet feeder - usually it feeds on the hopper or the ground. The Downy Woodpecker is also standing on the upper suet cage, but eating out of that same cage which contains a C&S Almond Treat suet block. The Red-breasted Nuthatch likes the bottom cage, which I think has a C&S Nutty Treat, or something similar. I have another single hanging suet cage on the rose arch with C&S Insect Treat in it. Downies, wrens, titmice and chickadees like this one, maybe because it's well-hidden in the rose canes (which is why I don't have a good photo of it). I'm trying to avoid mixing up my own suet glop, particularly because I don't have a convenient source of rendered suet. The raw suet hasn't been more popular than the store-bought. Claire

We had daily visits from cardinals immediately after hanging our new birdfeeder this spring. Unfortunately, we also attracted all the neighborhood squirrels, english (?) sparrows, and rats! We gave up on the birdfeeder after the squirrels killed two plants underneath and pulled the birdfeeder down; it was a good try. Now our fountain attracts a pair of catbirds and the sparrows daily, the cardinals occasionally, and a pair of doves just recently. One of the pools in the fountain seems to be just the right depth for baths! The rats seem to have moved in under our porch despite the removal of the feeder, where we piled some bricks and rocks from garden excavations. Apparently we need to clear it all out to convince the rats that not only will we not feed them, but we won't house them, either. Sigh. Our campaign to attract birds continues, however. We just replaced some sad-looking lilacs by our porch (moved them elsewhere) with Black Beauty elderberry, which we are hoping will contribute to a bird feast this fall. We also just added a blue princess holly and her prince, and a couple of low-bush blueberries. Susan