is there any chance that it is a purple finch? hard to tell from the pic, but the facial markings make me think it's a purple, not a house finch... Lisa

When I was a kid I grew up on my Grandfathers dairy farm in N.E.Ohio and although we did have tractors we did most of our farm work the old way with horse drawn equipment in the same way the Amish do today. With 45 cows, 13 draft horses, sheep, hogs, chickens and a number of young heifers coming up we had to grow over 30 acres of hard yellow dent corn to produce feed for the animals. In the spring when we were planting the corn Grandmother used to give us two or three large 3# coffee cans of squash and pumpkin seeds and as we filled the seed hoppers on the corn planter we would toss in a handful of Grandmas seeds. In the fall we cut the corn with a single row corn binder that cut the corn and tied it in bundles, which were then dropped on the ground, and we later had to stand all those bundles up into corn shocks were it stood in the field to dry until we could haul it a load or two a day to the barn to be husked. When the men were cutting the corn with the binder us boys had to run a couple rows ahead of the binder and find the pumpkins & squash, pick them and set them out in the cut part of the field so they wouldn't get run over by the binder then we had to hitch a team of horses to a box wagon and haul all the pumpkins and squash to the house and store them in the root cellar. In a typical year we would produce upwards of two tons of pumpkins and various varieties of squash, which were primarily Hubbards (which us boys affectionately called "HUBBUBS"), Acorn squash, Turbin Squash and Butternut squash and sometimes a few gourds which were used as decorations, cut into dippers or holes drilled in the sides and hung as bird houses. Needless to say, throughout the fall and winter squash was a mainstay of our diet in the same manner as potatoes and Grandmother knew dozens of different ways to cook them. For hubbards & butternut squash she primarily would cut them in half lengthwise, clean the seads out then steam or boil them, scoup the meat out of the shell, add butter and a touch of nutmeg and mash them and serve in the same manner as mashed potatoes (only no milk). If Grandmother was feeling exceptionally ambitious she would sometimes make a squash pie in the same manner as making a pumpkin pie and on rare occasions she would make an indian pudding from the squash. For the turbins and acorns she would cut them lengthwise, clean the seeds out, then place them face down on a cookie sheet with a bit of water and bake about 40 minutes in a moderate oven, then turn them right side up and put butter & honey in the cavity and bake another 15 to 20 minutes. But my abolute favorite way of fixing acorns came in late November right after we butchered hogs..Grandmother would cut acorns lengthwise, clean the seeds out, then stuff the cavity with pork sausage and bake for an hour. To this day that remains my favorite way to fix acorn squash.

in my opinion, our best permanent garden-pest eating bird is the carolina wren. you won't find them or robins at the seed feeders very often as they eat worms and insects, supplemented with some plant material such as berries. the wrens are such neat birds and can be found here all year. they love to nest near homes with shrubby/brushy areas(or at least my home and i even have a cat, albeit an old one who can't hear and has poor vision :-)). the parents carry the fecal sacs excreted by the young birds away from the nest so you won't find mounds of bird poop on your porch or patio. they love planted hanging baskets as nest sites. a winter water source and something like the mealworms mentioned will keep them near your home. i see them going through the leaf mulch all winter here in east central alabama looking for insects/grubs and you are in an even warmer zone. and you can have a squirrel -proof bird feeder. i have mine on a very tall shepherd's hook in an open area (no shrubs or small trees within about 8'). if your feeder hangs 6' or more from the ground, they can't jump to it. mine also has a baffle below it to discourage climbing but i still have to grease the pole to keep them from trying. they eventually give up. the axle grease lasts for a few weeks until it needs to be reapplied. if this still does not work for you, buy safflower seeds instead of sunflower. it is more expensive but squirrels won't eat it and birds will. i read that it tastes bitter to the squirrels.

Alain, not sulphurea. Maybe O. leucotricha? It would greatly benefit from being repotted into a larger pot and fresher soil, but maybe waiting for spring is good, too.