Dorothy, I believe the calling or honking is between family members, like parents and children, and is how they keep up with each other's whereabouts as they fly. I saw purple finches at the finch feeder just yesterday and that's the first time this fall I saw any bird at the feeder. It is half empty, so clearly they've been visiting it, but not when I've been outside. Jeanie, With the hummingbirds, I only know the migration has begun because suddenly the hummingbird traffic at the feeders increases a lot. It happens as early as early August some years and not until late August in other years. The major increase in hummer traffic lasts maybe a month and then tapers off, although I still might have occasional slowpokes passing through even well into October. Also, I've noticed we see ruby-throats, rufous and black-chinned hummers during spring and fall migration, but generally only the rubies stay here. So, when I see rufous and black-chinned hummers either in spring or late summer, they are the migrants. I hate the black snakes because they kill our chickens and also eat eggs. We have a lot more trouble with the rat snakes killing chickens that with chicken snakes killing chickens. It is always somthing, I guess. Without cats to control the rodents, I expect we'd have a huge rodent and snake problem, so I greatly appreciate the cats efforts at rodent control. Some years we see the geese in fall headed south, but we always see them headed north in spring. I am not sure if I am not outside at the right times in the fall to see them, or what, because if I see them headed north (and I always do), that clearly means they had to have come south at some earlier time. A lot of waterfowl overwinter at the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge, which is in Texas near Pottsboro near Lake Texoma, and so is a few miles east/southeast of my part of Love County. I've often wondered if the geese that I'm not seeing in the fall are taking a route slightly east of us and stopping to rest at the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge before heading further south. When we lived in Fort Worth, I saw the geese every year, and they always flew over my brother's place near Crowley too. Here, geese sightings are much more hit and miss in the fall but very consistent in the spring. Normally we have ducks move in to live on/near our big pond, but it was dry for so long that there aren't any here this year. We've always had a lot of turtles here because of the creeks and ponds, but the last three years, one large one (she's about the size of a dinner plate) has laid eggs right under the plum tree in our yard. The raccoons always dig up and eat the eggs laid near the ponds and creeks, so maybe by laying the eggs further from a body of water, her babies have a chance to hatch out. So, having the turtle digging in the yard (an activity that freaks out the cats) and laying eggs is now one of the signs of spring we watch for. Susan, It does sound like a Carolina Wren. I remember that Randy used to have wrens nest in his garage and/or greenhouse there in central OK. Tracy, How cool is it that you have the lovebirds? My son is a tropical bird lover and has two sets of lovebirds that are sitting on eggs in their little nests right now. The flycatchers are still here, so if you ever get to move back, you won't have to miss them any more. Jeanie, I think that Chuckwill's Widows are fairly unattractive as birds go, but not as ugly as the Vultures. Dawn

Grace and Shirley, I have been sorta MIA here. We have had a couple BIG fires on the ranch and extra workers here trying to get cows moved and Mamas and calves separated into different fields and the holidays and county fair etc , etc..... Anyway, Grace, I'm looking forewars to sitting down with the book and relaxing a bit. Will regular "night Crawlers" work? We have those here in areas that are irrigated. Bethb

Another hummer this morning. Since corunum AKA Jane discovered that links to videos were still being posted while jpg pics were not, I took a video - you can see the urgency with which she fills up with the nectar solution. The migrants are still coming through the pipeline - a good reason to keep feeders up. Claire (sounding like a broken record)

Interesting Oakley that Wood Sage and Sea Salt had such a bad beginning for you. But glad it was pleasant in the end. I've had other things like that but can't remember what they were right now. And sometimes I've had the opposite too of something I thought I liked originally then after a bit it was terrible. Thank goodness for samples!!! For you 'bad dog smell', if they are rugs, I'd set them outside in the sun and fresh air a few hours and that always did it for my Mom when we had a dog. Of course if the rug is large, that's no easy task! I had great luck with bad smells from a healthcare worker that we had for my Dad not too long ago. Talk about perfume overload!! She used essential oils, smoked cigarettes and then tried to cover all that up with some sort of strong cleaner or laundry detergent and a strong mouthwash!! I could smell ALL the layers. Yuk!! I was gagging and could not get 10 feet from her. We had to cover the chair she sat in with a blanket so it wouldn't permeate the fabric. My Dad had lost most of his sense of smell and he smoked cigars so it did not bother him plus she was great with him so I just put up with it. But I couldn't stand it and by the 3rd evening we had gotten an Orek air purifier. It was a larger newer model that I had used before but worked fantastic. I could now be in the same room with her. And by the next day, it was the freshest smelling room in the house. And she was no longer ruining the furniture. Maybe this could work for you? No I don't work for Orek or anything, just reporting what worked well for us and saved us from having to fire an otherwise great worker. The new bigger one we used is called Orek DualMax Air Purifier and the smaller size we had before was called the XL Professional Air Purifier. I've since even used the big one to get cigarette smoke and mothball smells out of a few leather purses and after a few days they smelled like leather again. In fact, I'm doing this same thing as a favor for a few friends of mine. Hope you can find something that can help you.