Great sighting, Happygirl! Yes, it is sad to see the mockers lose their babies, but take heart in that they raise 4 or 5 clutches a year, and if ALL of them survived, we'd be inundated with mockingbirds. It IS nature at work, and awesome to watch. Sometimes it is hard not to intervene, I know, but in the grand scheme of things, it's better not to. GHO's don't usually rob nests, I don't think, so I'm wondering if there might be a scarcity of rats or rabbits right now, for some reason. Perhaps the drought has reduced the numbers of their more typical prety somewhat. Interesting! Or perhaps they are just opportunists, and saw a chance for an easier meal. Marcia

Chickadeemelrose, Gee, thanks! That was nice of you to say. I think many people lose sight of the bigger picture when they deal with most things, and nature in particular. They focus on what they immediately see, not realizing there is much there they don't see. (Kind of like the moon. People say "The moon is out," but really, the moon is always there, we just don't see it.) With bird feeding, people don't realize if and how they do or do not impact wildlife. Think about this: People complain about hawks killing "their" birds at "their" feeders. But most, if not all feeders actually overtly feed other bird predators and in my opinion, increase certain bird-predator populations. Like squirrels and raccoons, which routinely raid bird nests for eggs and chicks in spring and summer. That has way more impact on your backyard than a hawk or fox taking birds, because the squirrel destroys the entire brood. Same thing with Blue jays and Common grackles, who benefit from feeders and take eggs and chicks. The wrong predators destroy an entire brood, or kill the parents (like House sparrows do), and that, I think, affects natural selection. Puts prey survival down to luck instead of skill, smarts and health. I don't have any problem with any native predators doing what they have done for millenium; but to artificially increase their populations seems to me questionable. It is very rare that our species promotes the populations of the right species (Bald eagles, Peregrines, wolves). We usually screw it up and regret it later (House sparrows, kudzo). I am not a biologist. All the above is integrated into my basic understanding of how nature works, simplified as it is. I would like other nature lovers to think about it.

We had a wild Turkey with avian pox this winter. I begged my DH to shoot him but being a licensed hunter he would not. I called DNR, they did not bother to show up at my door for 5 days, of course the Turkey was not there at the time. I asked for a special permit to shoot the bird and told them we would bring it in. They woud not let us. The poor thing died what Im sure was a terible death not far from the house. It could not eat either because the pox was in his mouth or he could no longer find his way to the food. From my understanding some forms of pox can be treated but need constant removal of the "warts". If it is in the mouth and throat there is no hope.

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)