Thank you ladies for the birthday wishes! The tree is a Nyssa sylvatica (aka Black Gum, Sour Gum or Tupelo). I have 9 of them growing on my property that were here when I bought the land. Many smaller ones have popped up since. Only a few of the big ones bear fruit. They like wet or dry woodland soil, will create groves over time, and are native to E. North America. They get non-messy blue fruit in late summer/early fall, neon red or orange fall foilage that stops you in your tracks, need no pruning unless you want to, summer leaves are deep green and glossy, and they are pest free. Down side, you never see them for sale in garden centers, but I've seen them available on-line (mostly native sites) as seedlings. You can start them from seed. (OK, does anybody want seed - if I can get it before the birds do - or maybe a small seedling, as I find them?) They are bird magnets in fruit and bee/hummingbird/nectar insect magnets in bloom. They do not grow exceptionally fast, but the wildlife value is high as a food source, if they turn out to be female trees. FTM - hope you get some great photo ops when the ice closes in - I'm excited for you (and us)! Brenda - lucky you - getting regular visits from a friendly RCKinglet! They are so pretty and like many little birds have a personality, or so it seems. Jean - those holes are huge. I've not seen them before - thanks for posting them. I wonder if any will become nest sites or are they drilling for insects and sap only? I have a pair of RBW that have drilled their nest site into the top of a broken off trunk, of what was once a double trunked oak. The big oak was hit by a small tornado or something that whipped through here a few years back and it wiped out one of the two trunks. A real big tree and so high up I can see their nest hole from afar. P.S. FTM - Yes, I agree - next poster please start a Bird Sightings 3 so it will be easier for Brenda to open quicker until the broadband fairy visits her home! I wanted to put my reply post here, rather than have it look out of context as a first post on a new thread, since I added no new photos. CT

The fish are not so much hibernating as going dormant which means they can get somewhat active if the water temperature rises too high. You don't want to feed them once that happens because they don't digest the food and it can ferment in their insides (They don't have stomachs per sei). They might manage to nibble on some algae on the sides of the pond but even that should be at a minimum. They will brouse a lot but very slowly. I have an air pump for a 60 gallon aquarium that works just fine in the pond but I still use the deicer. We can get 4 to 6 inches of ice here in Indiana. The air pump is available at any pet store or dept. in stores like Meijers or Wally world for about $20. Place it close to the pond and keep it under cover to avoid water vapor from freezing in the tubing. If the hole in the ice does freeze over you should not use a hammer to shatter the ice. Apparently the concussive shock wave will harm the fish. I bow to the advice of previous posters on that subject especially since I know my fishies get very panicky at loud noises. Even a cough or sneeze can scare them. Sandy

BN, that was really great description/comparison between the two. Thanks much for your input. Think you, Jan, and beegood are right on about it being a song sparrow! -mxyplx, maybe a new prescription is in order??? ;-) This guy isn't a Junco, but don't you just love those little guys? Never used to have them (or at least see them) around this particular area until a few years ago. Now they are all over the place and I am very glad of it! Think the ones around here may be the Oregon Junco... CMK

yYes, there are trains, including the CTA but if I'm staying downtown at Holiday Inn on Harrison and we have supper out by the airport, it could be late before I come back into town and the CTA isn't such a nice place after 7 or 8 at night. I also know a taxi is $50 or so, but there is also the airport shuttle, which will get me one way for $27.00 if I'm the only passenger and the more passengers the lower the fare. If it's just Robin and I, I suggested we eat downtown and then she'd shuttle back to O'Hare, she's staying right there by the airport. If anyone else comes along and it's better to meet out by the airport for supper, Robin and I would both take the train or shuttle back to O'Hare, then I'd shuttle back in after supper. So. shermann, are you in? I come into Union station by train at 11:58 on Wednesday, Robin is flying into O'Hare at 10:30 am that day. You know she's GOT to see downtown, so she'll meet me at Union Station and we'll spend the afternoon just walking around and lunching. I did check with Ilana, but the timing is bad, she has a class and couldn't make it downtown at all, and supper would have to be early for her to make it at all, and then only if we were by the airport. Annie