That's them! I wonder why they didn't turn that pink color in the last years. maybe a combination of temperature and rain and other "stuff". In answer to your question Laura about when to plant the seeds; I've just let mine drop to the ground and they always come up each year. If I want to start some in a new section I have taken some of the pods during the winter and scattered them about. I do know that where they come up around other plants, especially tall ones like sunflowers and cannas, I have to go out every other day and untangle their choking vines . I have found a few strays as well of different colors and leaf shape. Not sure if they dropped from passing birds or if in my attempts to reshape some of the poor lanscaping from the last owners I uneathed some seeds. Thanks everyone, Jim

Well, at least some of what I heard appears to be a couple of Night Herons as I finally saw one while making the call. It looked like a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron as I thought I saw a strong black and white pattern on it's face, but it was low light so I could have been mistaken. It and it's partner both took off almost as soon as I saw them too, so I only got a fleeting glimpse of them. Strange though, the call was much more repetitious than what I read or heard online. It also was lower than most of the calls I listened to online. I also don't know what they're doing up in tall trees most of the night instead of down by some body of water hunting. Maybe it's something about the environment around here in my part of eastern Kansas? LOL We do have a lot of Seagulls but they're almost always flying up high at between about 200' to 500' zig-zagging around non-stop all day it seems. The only time I see them down on the ground is in or near 1 of the large reservoirs here in Kansas, but those are some 75 to 100 miles from my place.

Well if that turns out to be the culprit, I give dees the credit, since she (or he) first suggested the nighthawk. I'm not very good at onomatopoeia: TCHK or "peent" . I have enough trouble spelling actual words, much less trying spell random strange animal noises. :-) I remember watching nighthawks in Ohio, climbing into the sky and diving, over and over, late into the night until all you could see was the two white bands on their wings. I also remember seeing (and hearing them) in Minnesota when we lived there. I don't think they live in Virginia near me.

This just happened at my sisters house when the pope was visiting the USA this year. Sister has one of those 300 day clocks that plays music,except it hasn't had the batteries changed or played any music in over 10 years.My sister said one day her and her DD were in the computor room,and had the tv on and every channel there was the pope.So they were discussing the whys of why every channel should be showing nothing but the pope.Complaining in other words,then all of a sudden that clock started playing Ave Maria.She said they both looked at each other and couldn't believe what they were hearing. Her DD says mom did you put new batteries in that clock?? No she says i havn't touched that clock in years!! So they took it down,checked it out and it was as dead as a doornail,they could not get it to play Ave Maria or anything else. So they decided they better quit complaining about the Popes coverage. Weird huh??? Kathi