Seedmama, Your kind words are appreciated. Knowing how close you came to losing your home to a wildfire earlier this year, you know I'm always watching the fire weather and fire maps so I can text or phone you if needed. It is harder to track fire danger in summer because the winds are lower so the NWS doesn't issue Fire Weather Watches every other day and Red Flag Fire Warnings often like they do when we have windier weather in wind and spring. However, I know from being out at fires these last few weeks, including one pretty close to our place, that the fires are moving almost as quickly now due to all the cured vegetation as they move in winter/spring when being pushed by high winds. That is not wildfire behavior we have observed here often. Usually summer wildfires are sort of slow and lazy compared to winter and early spring wildfires. These year the summer wildfires are raging maniacs. Too many homes are burning across Oklahoma because of wildfires, and I especially hope that doesn't happen to anyone here. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I'd be equally devastated if our house and garden burned in a wildfire, but at least the house is insured and rebuilding would be fairly easily accomplished. The thought of having a wildfire wipe out the garden and take out all the fencing, the wooden boards that edge all the raised beds, the arbors, gates, and trellises, and all the mulch is quite distressing. With the KBDI number being so high, even the humus and compost in the soil would burn and that is distressing too. After 13 years of soil-building, it would be so hard to start over from scratch. I'm also going to be really mad if the greenhouse burns down before I get a chance to use it! Wantonamara, I'm glad y'all are cooler this year. No one deserves two of these years back to back. I was really hoping that Tropical Storm Don would bring y'all relief, and then he didn't. Now Emily seems destined to head elsewhere, so I guess we can pin our hopes on the future 'Franklin' whenever and wherever he develops. What do you mean we aren't cooling off? lol We went all the way down to 83 degrees early this a.m. Isn't that cool? Well, maybe not, but it sure felt cool after the afternoon's 111. We've already hit 112 today, tying my city's all-time record, which was set in August 1956. We are supposed to go to 113 but I won't mind if we don't go any higher than 112. It is interesting how many fires start along the roadside. While all of the wildfires we've been to this summer have not necessarily started at the side of the road, I'd say 80% of them have. There's so many things that cause it---mechanical malfunctions, carelessness, etc. One of the scariest things we've had lately have been those big old flatbed semi tractor-trailer trucks hauling hay down to Texas. There have been several reports lately of those hay trucks rolling down the highway with flames or smoke coming from the wheels or tires. Our local law enforcement officers rush to find them and stop them before their load of hay ignites. (That has happened before, but not this year as far as I know.) Heaven help anyone whose property has a highway or other heavily-traveled road adjacent to their land. Pat, Sometimes at fires I (or someone else standing there with me) can smell the grass starting to burn underneath a vehicle (including fire brushtrucks) and have to warn someone to move out of the tall grass. Some fire depts. have lost brush trucks this year while fighting fires because the grass under the trucks has caught fire and then the fire devoured the truck. It is a constant risk. We see it a lot here with tractors and balers too. FYI: The Governor extended the Governor's Burn Ban to all 77 counties today. I do think our county has had fewer fires since the county burn ban was implemented, and even fewer since the first governor's burn ban was issued, but we'll still have plenty of them. I was looking at my poor, hot, wilty okra plants today and think they could burst into flames any moment just from all the hot rays of the sunlight they're absorbing. When I walked across the yard to mist the setting hens that are inside the coop, hummingbirds were flying around playing in the mist from the miste, as were cardinals and, a bit more discretly, the doves. I'm glad we have enough flowers in bloom to keep the hummers happy, but think they may find the southern migratation pretty tough this year. We have planted so many plants specifically for the wild things, but so many of those plants are struggling now and I am woried they won't provide as much food for the wild things as they usually do. The native possumhaws are looking really bad. Dawn

Wow she really is huge! I have been keeping my feeders full since our temps are horrific (PA). I feel so bad for the birds and bunnies. I don't know how they survive these temps. The little wrens take cover on my covered porch and stay under my covered patio table. The bunnies visit my feeder area at note and enjoy what's on the ground. I don't have a heated BB but hope to get one next year when I get my small side yard landscaped.

Lisa, Lisa, Lisa, have you been staying up late again watching Disney Movies? Just teasing but it does sound a little disneyesque no? Very cool if these birds were watching over a baby regardless of what kind of bird. My Bluebirds are a tiny bit delayed in fledging so maybe the weather is affecting all of them. I am keeping my fingers crossed for your beautiful babies to fledge healthy and happy when they are ready.

It's a baby cardinal! And it just finally left the artificial ficus while it's parents called to it from a nearby tree! It's little "mohawk" is in, and the colors are that of a baby cardinal and not a cowbird. It just was very reluctant to leave the nest. Yesterday, it began to crawl out further onto the branches of the ficus, chip-chipping and a parent would answer back. The parents have spent so much time with this particular fledgling...I have to wonder about the safety of the other two. They're still out there. The male comes flying out from under our window shrubs when blackbirds are in the front yard and issues his "alert." What a relief...but now, that little chipmunk from next door! I started tossing seed balls into their own shrubbery to keep the chipmunk away and am using live mealworms and safflower. Might have to take down the suet, since the cowheads/blackbirds seem to like it far too much and come into territory where the fledglings are hiding. I read they will fly within 20 days. It's now 14 days since I first noticed the birds were hatched. They could have hatched before I saw them. So when should they begin to fly? I know the parents do stay with them and "train" them.. But that chipmunk! Thank you all for responding to my "cardinal adventure." What a lovely song they sing. : ) ...And I just watched the little guy hop off with both parents very near. I don't hear them now. Just so they're all safe!