What a pretty blue! Nice to have such a visitor! ~Rosemarie

Had a huge spotted owl fly over me yesterday while on the lake at Loud Thunder Forest preserve in Andalusia, Illinois. So far in the city at my birdfeeder I've had the usual: lots of sparrows, grackels, a few cardinals, my daily frequenting Blue Jays;...but a few weeks back I had two more unusual visitors: (1) White-Breasted Nuthatch and (2) Red-Bellied Woodpecker. The nuthatch was awesome. I was sitting watching the feeder when I saw this little bluish bird running DOWN the trunk of my tree and it kept doing that. At the time I didn't know what it was. Then I learned. He/She was funny. Loved it! dax

I am thrilled! I haven't had a bird feeder in years, but my mother was a birder and we always had feeders growing up. In all those years, we never saw any of the buntings. So this year I finally decide to set out a feeder after seeing my first ever indigo bunting sitting in the grass in my yard a few weeks ago. Now, only a week later, I have up to 11! male indigos in my yard at once on a daily basis. At one point last weekend, they were joined by over 100! goldfinches, and I finally hit the birding jackpot---a male/female pair of painted buntings has been coming every day! Ever since seeing the picture of a painted in the Peterson book, it was my birding holy grail to see one. A few days ago I also saw my first Scarlet Tanager. I was absolutely shocked at how insanely bright orange red this bird was. Almost like a flying traffic cone, and it was set off beautifully by the black wings. I sure hope he comes back. It seems like every day I get a new species. Purple finch, cardinal, blue jay, mourning dove, yellow bellied sapsucker, blue grosbeak. My grandmother, who is also an avid birder for decades tells me the next one I should hope for is a Baltimore Oriole. At this rate, it seems quite likely.

I am new to this birding stuff, but I will add my two bits. For the first time I had one show up in my yard about two weeks ago. Saw him on the feeder a few days after that. I have a hopper feeder with pretty much everything thrown in the mix. Fruits, nuts, berries, thistle, BOSS, all thrown in with the stuff that usually comes in the generic wild bird mix stuff. He was hanging out there the first two times I saw him, but since then all his time has been on the tray below the BOSS tube feeders. I would venture to guess the guy hanging around my yard prefers BOSS on a elevated tray. Scott