Hi Susan, Sure, we're always pleased when someone enjoys any of our photos enuf to use one as their desktop image. ------------------------------------- From our homepage, regarding usage: ------------------------------------- "All the photos in our public galleries are copyrighted, but they are freely available for download at web resolution (not really suitable for prints) for any personal, educational or non-commercial use. If you like any of the images enough to download them, please respect our copyrights, and leave us a comment letting us know. We love to hear from visitors who've enjoyed our photos". Kenn :)

Thanks all, We're very fortunate to have so many pretty songbirds here and we love to share them with other bird lovers. :) Terrene - We usually get quite a few Monarchs and several other lovely butterflies here. Populations seem about normal to me this year, but the Painted Ladies have been kinda scarce so far. Rachel - This juvie Cooper's (a female we think - it's BIG) has been hunting House Sparrows in the neighbor's azalea bush. We love to see and photograph the hawks (we have at least 4 species captured so far)... but we're in constant fear for our songbirds. Todate we've only seen them take Starlings and HOSP. Thanks again everybody, :) Kenn & Temple Backyard Birders in St.Louis MO. Here is a link that might be useful: Latest Slideshow

Thanks lovefornature, claire, and kendra2... it's always our pleasure to share our birds with others who enjoy them. lovefornature - It takes time to attract a lot of birds to your yard or garden. But providing them with fresh water, healthy foods, and a variety of plants and trees for cover will eventually bring many lovely birds within reach of your lens. I think most folks have lots more birds near their homes than they ever see. We've spent years watching ours and trying to give them every reason to visit us... Simply tending to and observing them consistently over the years has allowed us to photograph 70 species from the comfort of our deck. Thanks again all, and happy birding. Kenn Here is a link that might be useful: Birds Blossoms,&Butterflies Vol 5

Oh, rabbits, they have been "tuber pruning" my potatoes this year, wretched things. If it were November or December I'd be eating hasenpfefer and getting a return on my investment, but, chances are they will hole up and hide once they are safe to eat, much to my chagrin. One rule I have heard about for bees is they prefer blue/purple flowers, followed by yellow. I guess they can't really "see" the red spectrum very well or something like that. They also adore mint and basil flowers, and borage is a good one as well (although, except for the flowers, the plant itself is hideous and a huge reseeder. It's also an annual, not sure if your into that). If you want to attract a cool native pollinator, grow lots and lots of squash! Squash bees ONLY visit squash flowers and they are so neat! They will even sleep inside the flower once it closes in the late morning, lol. I have never had to hand pollinate a zucchini, though, I had to disappoint them this year because powder mildew was so awful last year I took a break from growing even cucumbers. Anyways,,, I looked up the Mt. Royal plum and I THINK we had one of those at our house as a kid. It survived for several years, though, I did not grow up in a gardening household and it slowly declined until it eventually quit giving fruit, and then it died. The stump where it grew is still there. We did get lots of fruit from it the first few years we lived here, much more than we could ever use fresh (and we would GORGE ourselves on them) and I think the one year dad tried his hand at canning them there was still bushel baskets left over on that tree. Squirrels were a major pest of them, but, I think that's true of ANY fruit tree. Another "pest" you will encounter growing fruit is bears if you happen to live near them. But, if you live in the major suburban area, probably not a problem lol. Once again, I get off on a tangent, geez louise! Back on topic.... To be honest, I think I personally prefer the American plum flavor, its more tart/acidic, which I enjoy. But, I think either kind will work good for you, especially if it was recommended to you by an actual nurseryman and not a lay person who only has slight, anecdotal knowledge of growing fruit trees haha.