They are Robins, but wish it was a red tailed hawk. FYI- I was thinking about ways of attracting hawks to keep the squirrel population at bay and went to the birds of prey show at Callaway gardens (must attend if you like birds of prey as they fly them right over your head), but the trainer really didn't have any concrete advice for attracting hawks. Not sure, but may end up removing the forming nest as i don't want to spray the birds with pesticide when treating the peachtree.

You can always try hanging the feeders independent of the trees. A post set into the ground with hooks for the feeders or the shepherd's crooks they sell specifically for this purpose would prevent any damage hanging feeding appliances directly to a tree might incur. As to the pros and cons of feeding birds.......I agree with Dan on this one. Expanding development has restricted/removed many of the natural habitats and food sources and encouraging birds to the garden is overall a very good thing - they are the best natural insect control available! Plus, they are infinitely entertaining. Planting to encourage habitat and to supplement food sources is desirable, but nothing wrong with feeders either. They can bring the birds up close and personal :-)) If you want songbirds, try a "no-waste" mix. Even if it gets scattered on the ground, it gets eaten too fast to hang around to attract rodents. And sapsucker damage to trees is generally more cosmetic than particularly harmful. Since they have a 'preferred' tree menu, you can always avoid attracting them by not planting the trees they like. And as they tend to limit their diet to insects and tree sap, with supplementation from fruits and berries - the seed feeders are unlikely to create additional problems.

That would be correct- the pepper tree would be the only thing providing privacy should the oleander die away. The pepper tree is on my side of the fence line. I have no problem with the bare spots left from removing the pepper tree. The neighbor's property on the other side of the hedge is just a storage/ trashcan area. They have a wooden fence separating their backyard from the storage/ trashcan area. I can always fill in the fence with a fast growing hedge. I just want the pepper tree out. As tall as those pepper trees are, I'm guessing the root system might go on for yards. We already are dealing with an eroding hillside and ground squirrels, I'd hate to have to disturb the soil even more by digging up the roots to all those 20 foot tall pepper trees. This post was edited by gardenweb88 on Mon, May 6, 13 at 2:31

It's never a bad idea to answer questions 2 years late lol.... Because others will read the post and learn and it'll answer other peoples questions like mine. This is like a library, future chili growers will read this to learn how to grow hot peppers. This is my first winter with a chili pepper plant indoors. I had my plant planted in ground outdoors and it still had a bunch of peppers and some flowers on them, so I brought them inside and they peppers seem to be ripening. Some peppers have turned from green to red indoors . I'm using an 11W LED grow light. I also put a germinated Scotch bonnet seed and just transferred from paper towel to pot. Once it grows its first true leaves, I'll put the pot with my outdoor chili pepper and lemon trees which are all under the LED light and a medium window.