Zinnia's! Also Cosmos (the orangey-yellow ones), Sunflowers and Mexican Sunflowers (Tithonia), Touch-me-Nots, Mexican Petunias (very invasive, though), Marigolds, Morning Glories, Tropical Sage. I don't know if birds like any of these, but hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and wasps of all kinds do. Dill, cilantro, basil.

That's looking more and more like the Teneza. Yes, it has small thorns, hardly enough to stick you and they are widely spaced. This photo of my younger tree shows the texture of the bark and the thorns ... New leaves on the younger tree ... The dark green tree in the center of the photo is my more mature tree which is about 18 ft. tall at 12 or more years old ... It can get larger, but is fairly show growing. I saw one on the south side of town that was about 35 ft tall. One of the nicest things about them is they keep their leaves during the winter which is very unusual for this type of tree. The leaves are slightly more sparse, but that's all. Also the blooms are very fragrant. They produce long seed pots which split open as they dry. Is that a bean pod on the lower left of your last photo?

I got new hummingbird feeders this year and the orioles loved them. This is the first year we had any stay to nest close by. There were at least 2 nests nearby. It is also the first year I had seen them as they headed south. For several days we had orioles on our hummingbird feeders continually. Here is a pic of the feeders. They are made by First Nature and come completely apart for easy cleaning. From Drop Box

Hi Rachel, Sorry - I live in eastern Massachusetts, 7 miles north of Boston and I live in a suburb with a little wooded area bordering my backyard, and a wildlife reservation and ponds about 1/2 a mile away (I am very fortunate!). It has been very cold here the last few days and we got our first dusting of snow yesterday. I have seen different kinds of birds here within a mile of the house - woodpeckers, hawks, swans, geese, the common feeder birds, we even have a heron who flies back and forth over our neighborhood every day - so we do get a variety of birds. We definitely do have house sparrows, but these little guys I saw yesterday were not those. They were just about a solid brown from where I could see. No striping or definitive marks. They just hopped around eating stray sunflower seeds. I've gone through photos of species, both genders and juvenile appearances, on the internet and in my books, and I am not sure what this bird was. The only even remote possibilities I could come up with were: field sparrow; junco; and female indigo bunting. If you have thoughts on this I would be most appreciative. Thanks, Donna P.S. Your last set of photos was, as always, astounding. Congrats on your new lifer!