I've never bothered to see if any milkweed had a scent. If they do it's not strong. Lucy at least there's someone to water while you're away. Most of my plants will have to fend for themselves while we're away next week (or week after?). I'll have the kids that are taking care of the animals turn on the greenhouse mister for a few hours a day but with all the pets they need to care for (dog, cats, bird, rabbits, chinchillas, sugar gliders, hamsters, rat, frogs, fish and geckos) I can't ask them to water all the plants too. It takes me over an hour to water all the plants. I will move what I can to as shady an area as I can find but other then that there's not much I can do.

House finches...to love them or to hate them? Here's the story. They are native to Mexico and the Western United States, but were brought into the NYC area as cage birds in the 1930's. When pet stores found out they were a protected species (almost all passerines are), they released them, and the released birds began to breed. From those few dozen birds, the population of house finches in the northeastern states grew to over 10 million, and they began to spread southward. The first accepted record of one appearing in Florida was in 1983. The birds now breed as far south as Tampa and Lakeland, with some isolated colonies appearing even farther south. The malel house finch's color can vary from yellow to red, with the females seeming to prefer the reddest males. So...they don't really belong here, but they sure are pretty, and I suspect there is not one thing we can do about them being here, so we may as well enjoy them. Great pictures, Kara! Thanks for sharing! Marcia

You're welcome, Maureen...and I figure it this way: ornithologists don't really have enough to do all day long at their birding desks, so periodically, they look at one another and say, "How about we change some names again and confuse all the old time birders?" Then the Baltimore oriole gets combined with Bullock's oriole and they both become known as NORTHERN orioles, even though they aren't marked the same, live in different places, and have different songs! (That's the WORST one I ever saw happen.) Of course, now they are separated once again into two separate species. Since I've been a birder (over 40 years), I've seen the tall white egret that is common throughout Florida called three different things. When I started birding, he was called the common egret. Then it changed to the American egret. Now he is called the great egret. *sigh* It DO make it difficult, especially when you are just learning. Ornithologists are also divided into two groups: Lumpers and Splitters. Some are always wanting to lump two species of birds into ONE (as with the Baltimore & Bullock's orioles), and some are always trying to split one species up into two, based on very small regional differences in what is essentially only one bird. Now that I've given you MY theory, I hope we don't have any offended ornithologists among us. I'm only joking. Mostly. Marcia

Awesome Chickens!!! Have only seen this in pics and on TV. We do have a small population of Lesser Prairie Chickens here in Michigan and I was where they live but didn't see any when I WAS THERE OOPS. I just love all grouse. Cathy