Good morning, Kimball Welcome to the party. The egret and a blue heron patrol my pond fairly regularly and thin the bullfrog population. Too bad for the frogs, but they would overran the pond and the frogs would eat al the fishes, so it's a balance.

We have a family of deer that trek through our woodland by the creek. Occasionally they come up to the house areas. I noticed momma sampling some annabelle bushes, some elderberry trees and my newly planted playcodons. the platycodons were mowed to the ground! Must be a favorite. Hostas? Untouched year after year. I didn't even know deer liked hosta until I found this forum and read all the horror stories! I must be lucky. But watch, now that I have come to appreciate my hosta, my luck will probably change! Gotta respect mother nature...

What a great photo captured! And also a terrific feeder, great setup. I am hoping to put together a suet log and your photo is a great example. One thing I do remember about the hairy woodpecker is that its bill is close to the length of its head, where the downey's is smaller relative to its head size. That would make me think your woodpecker is a hairy. Thanks again for sharing -

I'll have to go look at the labels, My variegated Aloe has the biggest flowers, but it blooms in winter in the house. That's my favorite Aloe. I'm so jealous, they released some wild turkeys a few years ago, but the ones in my neighborhood got hit by cars. I loved watching them. I think that there are too many predators around here for them to breed successfully. They let them go pretty far from my house, but they walked along the river until they came to civilization. A few of them were seen hanging out at the grocery store :-) I think that happens when they're raised by people before they are released, they aren't afraid of us to their demise. We do have feral Peacocks and they did not like the turkeys at all--especially the Peahens.