Sept. 27: A juvenile male hummingbird stopped by! This is the feeder on my deck. I was sitting out there and the hummer was OK with me being there but got spooked when I pulled out the camera so I didn't get a good shot of the whole head and throat. You can see the mottled gorget. Typical teenager - waited to the last minute before migrating. Claire

Hi Wren Garden, and Welcome! My favorites are the House Finch, and I've seen JOY and some sandness over the past several years. One thing for sure, you CAN get excellent advise right here, from people who are SO knowledgeable. They sure helped me from the get-go ... when I first started to love birds! One year, I really screwed up, and put out watermellon! The grackles came, with a vengence, and killed adults to win the territory! That taught me to NEVER put out a banquet when nests are active. Also, I leave very LITTLE food out that would attract other species. One thing the grackles HATE is safflower seeds. (Hard, pearly white.) I've seen them actually KICK their feet in it, with ANGER! And, I leave NOTHING near my 'nesting porch' house-side! I play it down! Never leave a chair, or stool, or anything that a squirrel can jump (leap) with! (Yep, they rob and eat eggs, babies, and adults too.) And, the ravens rob nests here like WILD in the spring. I say .. "It's a bird eat bird world out there ..." It makes me SICK but I continue to try and protect when I can. I've been heartbroken several times ... it never gets easier. But, the bottom line is ... nature will win over 'us' most of the time. I don't get into discussing which birds I could EASILY live without! LOL People always have arguments ... and we'll always have our 'babies' !!! Take care, stay strong, and do keep them in prayer. How could "Mother Nature" PS: If you have any leftover cherries, your ROBINS will love them! (Just wait 'till FALL to give them some!) Also, I LOVE to blast the grakles with a squirt gun! Tee Hee! Note: It's MOST important to feed the birds when their natural foods (seed, etc) is burried in snow! Birds seldom freeze to death, but in the harsh winter, they often starve!

Got 3 nestings from my pair in W. MD. 5/5, 5/5, and a new nest of 4 eggs last checked this past Saturday. Hopefully, there will be 5 eggs in that nest as well. Frankly, I was shocked (holding my breath), with the success. This was a total surprise to me as the surrounding area is very heavily wooded. My other nest much further east only had two broods, 5/3 and 4/3 (due to fledge early next week). This is my first year closely monitoring my boxes. Never thought I could be so happy to sit at a window with my face glued to a pair of binoculars watching a bird stuff it's face with wiggling worms! It has a become a passion and I hope we can ALL make our skies a little bluer. Keith, I had tiny ants in my nestbox, too. I smeared Tanglefoot all over the pole and put a cork in the pole opening at the top. Will keep checking the box until day 13. Linda

Today was the day for 2 baby owlettes to leave the tree nest in my backyard. This is the same tree that has been used by the owls in the years before but what I found to be remarkable was that the owlettes left on 5/9 of last year and that's today's date of this batch of babies leaving as well! Amazing!! This year's story..... I only thought there was one owlette in the nest because I had only seen one little head peeking at me from time to time. When I got home from the grocery earlier today my neighbor ran to my door to tell me that a baby owlette was in their back yard and had been sitting there for quite awhile. They didn't know what to do and quite frankly I was hoping for all that I was worth that it wasn't the owl from my backyard because it was going the wrong way!!! I have acres of woodland behind my house and this little fella was going toward more houses. Wrong way! When I got to the neighbor's house I quickly realized that it was indeed the little owlette from my backyard. I looked for quite awhile but didn't see the parents and they surely would have shown themselves had they known where this little guy was with us being so near him. We decided to move him back towards the nesting tree at the forest edge because I felt it would definitely be a safer place. I got a cardboard box and was able to easily scoop him into it (I got to touch him and he was wonderful!). I got him into my backyard and placed him on the ground. He hopped only a couple of inches away but turned back towards me and just sat. I sat with him for a few minutes and I made some of my mama owl sounds (yeah, right... lol) but for whatever reason he actually was making sounds back with me. Truly wonderful. Still no sight of mom or dad yet. I'm worried. I left him and went to sit on my deck. He came towards my house instead of going towards the woods. He climbed a tree near my deck but fell when he was about 10 feet up. Then he hopped across the yard back towards the woods. Yaaaay! Then I finally saw Dad!!! He came and sat in the tree next to the deck and I'm pretty sure he was gonna make sure I didn't go near the little one again. Later in the day the little one finally climbed a tree and stayed. Mom & Dad were near. Still later in the day I was watching them all and saw movement near the other little one. YES!!!!.... it was a second owlette climbing the nearby tree!!! There were two of them! Yaaay! They both climbed.... and they both fell out of their trees. As it was getting dark I couldn't watch them any longer but I knew they were together as was Mom & Dad. And now.... here's pics of this year's (2008) baby owlettes! What a wonderful day!!! Judy