I love the pagoda AND the pots! I made about 50 stepping stones this year with a concrete mix, but haven't tried cement/perlite pots yet. What did you use for forms? I intend to have a lot of pots in our new landscaping, but I'm really ignorant on this subject.

Same dilemma as to what these are. Took this pix last month, dark beaks and the top one looks like the legs are reddish. I took this a month ago so don't remember how large the birds were, far away up in a tree. Follow up: Bob Carlton Rossmoor Nature Ass'n Prez identified these as European Starlings in fall plummage. More bird images in that gallery. Here is a link that might be useful: Birds congregating...Starlings This post was edited by Cowgirl_in_the_Sand on Wed, Dec 12, 12 at 13:03

Well, that at least puts my kind to ease about the house sparrows. There aren't starlings around here-at least not now, but there was a small family around here last spring. They're gone now though. If the nestbox I plan to make ends up attracting unwanted attention from starlings then I'll probably just buy a box with the starling-resistant plexiglass shield.

Your pictures are great! I've had only one Northern Flicker and that was about 3 months ago and I've got 3 suet feeders! Lucky you!