Pixie Lou, I love those pond shots. You get such a range of critters visiting, and the green heron is especially nice. It has finally warmed up enough that Jane's least favorite critters are emerging in my garden, the snakes. I found a small (8") red-bellied snake that ended up in some grass clippings I moved to the compost after we hayed the lawn between rain showers. I was surprised to find him in the bottom of the garden cart, and tipped him out before I thought to photograph him. My reading tells me that they don't get much bigger than a big night crawler, so he was full grown. I was cleaning out the bed around the back patio where I so often see garter snakes, and had the company of this guy for a bit until he decided that I was interfering with his basking in the sun and left.

I was just reading this thread and feeling very jealous of you all when my doorbell rang and after I answered it I walked through the kitchen and saw 2 orioles at my hummingbird feeder. I could not believe my eyes. I thought I took a picture but nothing showed up in the camera. I may have forgotten to push the button or something. This explains why my feeder has been drained for the past week. I only have a couple of hummingbirds but I didn't put your messages together with the thought that I might have something else feeding there. I found a good web site that tells about them. The pictures on the web don't do them justice. Their color is brilliant. Here is a link that might be useful: baltimore oriole information

Mimilm - I only get the Baltimore Orioles for about a month before they head north, but I continue to have Orchard Orioles coming to my backyard throughout the Spring and Summer months. I've had great success by just putting a bowl with grape jelly or blackberry preserves on the railing of my deck. "My" Downy and Red-Bellied Woodpeckers like the jelly/preserves too! And for a special treat, I put fresh grapes in a suet feeder that I've enlarged by pulling the sides out some. Lots of different birds just love the fresh grapes! Kat_in_KS

Catherine, I just go outside and say "daddy blue" lol, yes I'm crazy....mom and dad blue fly in and so do the orioles. I am finding that the orioles are aggressive and sometimes scare the blues away. So now I just stand outside and when the blues see me, they come flying in. But dad oriole sees the bluebird take the worms to the nest box and there he is, so there is no fooling him. surya, I love the cat birds. They come to my deck and eat grape jelly and suet. I also put grapes out, the orioles eat them too. I was hoping the cedar waxwings would stop by for grapes, but they just take a bath in the stream and fly off. Karen