forgot to mention the others: doves, mockingbirds, grackles-common and boat-tailed, sparrows, painted buntings, blue jays, woodpeckers, yellow throated warbler, phoebe or flycatcher - not sure. yellow rumped warbler, turkey buzzards, crows. ducks flying over - don't know what brand. white ibis, lord and lady cardinal. cormorant flying over..woodstork. Think that's it for today. I love this time of year, too...especially for the birds. Have not seen the robins in a few days now, and the goldfinches flitted on through...only stopped for a very, very short time this year..yesterday I saw two..today nothing. No orioles yet, either, nor cedar waxwings...hoping maybe for this week, tho....it was the first week of March last year.

The goldfinches are enjoying the new thistle sock I had to buy yesterday and interestingly, Ted, through all the bear visits I've had here not once have they ever got into the garbage can. However, Friday night's visitor was trying to get to the can I keep the sunflower seed in. He was standing on the ground in front of the porch, with his front legs through the railing and wrapped around the can like huge furry arms, trying to pull it to him. They often traverse the yard and don't touch a thing. I know they've been here 'cause they take out the fence when they go through. Susie

Jim I am so glad you have had some memorable hummer experiences this year. The migration is still in full swing and I have three here right now. My last adult male left on Sept 1st. and the last adult female departed about a week ago. I have at least one juvenile male and 2 juvenile females but with the juvies until they start getting some of their adult plumage it is difficult to tell the males from the females. Most of my adult birds this year were strictly feeder birds. They were definitely fast food junkies but once the juvies came on the scene both feeders and flowers were in high use. I have an old clothesline that we cut done to be used in a smaller area for the hummers and they loved perching by the door first thing in the morning after they had breakfast watching and waiting and several would greet me when I walked out the door. If I was replaceing a feeder with a fresh one I always had one come right up to the feeder as I was hanging it back up. They also liked to perch on that line and watch me while I mowed the grass or collected flower seeds. Several times they flew up to me when I was removing dead flower stalks to check out what I was doing. A couple of times I had a female come in so close that I could feel the breeze from her wing flapping against my cheek. Remember to keep those feeders fresh especially when we have had the hot dry temps we had this summer. I never leave a feeder over two days as the nectar will start to ferment and if they do drink it, they can get sick. Often times they will just abandon the feeder. Even if you think all of your hummers have gone for the season, please consider leaving those feeders up for at least 2-3 weeks after your last siting as there are still quite a few migrants north of us that are yet to head south. There are large swarms still in Mich and Wisc. and quite a few swarms still over in Ontario from what I understand. If you can maintain at least one feeder until we get hard freezing temps please consider doing so. There are more and more reports of out of territory migrants showing up all the time. There is a Green-breated Mango Hummingbird that has shown up in Wisconsin whose most northern natural range is Mexico. Here is a picture of the Green-Breasted Mango. There have been Rufous in Ontario, Rufous and Calliopes in Pa. so you never know, a stray, out of range migrant could just as easily show up in NY. They are just the most amazing little creatures and I am so glad to see the growing interest in hummers and including hummer plants in gardens Penny

We need this device to be useable for canned food, not dry, so the kind with the rotating lid would be best. We put the catÂs medicine in her wet food. She would also eat everything in sight (sheÂs on a diet, so free access to any kind of food is a no-no). I did have the gravity-fed hopper type of dispenser, before she was sick and developed the boundless appetite. ItÂs true a smart cat will help themselves. IÂm not calling my cat dumb (of course not!) but she has no initiative. The food would often get stuck in the channel downward and she was clueless about how to get it down, or too passive to try. I think those would be fine for cats with normal appetites and the ability to see the food and realize how to get it down. The ones referenced in the above link was a metered-type hopper dispenser, though: under your cat is a good programmer I doubt they could help themselves. Unless there's some flaw in the system.