Hi Lisa, Thats an amazing story about the grackles! Though, it doesnt surprise me much because Ive seen similar smart behavior from them and from Curve-billed Thrashers. Both of them seem to be very smart birds. Thereve been studies on crows that show they make tools, make plans to figure out problems, and so on. IIRC, they were at least around 3-4 year old human level in thinking. Most humans would be surprised by that! Especially my mother-in-law-to-be whom called grackles "junk birds" which I found shocking as a concept. I understand the worry over native vs. exotic species But "junk"?! When I first saw the flock of grackles last year, it was like the Hitchcock movie The Birds! There were suddenly two decent sized trees totally black with grackles and they were all squawking about something. I thought it might be a baby, went out to see, and though most of them flew to a safer distance, a few did stay to see what I was doing. I didnt find a baby but they left shortly after with me none-the-wiser to what they were going on about :P I just want you to know, Im not anti-grackle. I love all creatures, though I did kill a couple of Black Widows last year, I usually move insects that scare me :) Either that or encourage them to go elsewhere. When we had a HUGE ants nest in our walkway, (the giant black ants that bite), I started putting sunflower seeds down so the doves would keep the area busy. The ants soon moved, taking some sunflower seeds with them! Id read to pour boiling water down the hole but thats just horrible to me. Anyway, most of our tadpoles are gone, so Im not going to net the pond. Since the grackles bully the other birds we got some big bowls and put them on the other side of the yard and moved our birdbaths into the shade over there, too. The other birds have found them and seem grateful. The weather here is *so* harsh, and with drought even worse. There really is a desperate need for water. It would be nice if it didnt draw *every* cat within 10 block radius since they sometimes kill birds. Its so heartbreaking :( But since we have the shadiest yard with the most water for at least a one-mile radius, we probably get the worst of it. Totally off topic, but now thinking about it, before we took in our cat that was abandoned (in the desert! in the summer! ugh humans!) the cat situation was a lot worse. He is *completely crazy* and tries our patience to the absolute limit, daily, and now has to be kept in until after sunset because he was killing birds Probably because he cant get over being abandoned and starving. He will fight any cat over his "territory," even our other semi-feral cat we found here years ago. This drives us mad, but maybe his craziness has paid off for us in the other cats killing birds area as weve had fewer cats hanging around probably not wanting to deal with him! Take care, -A

Roberto, I can only imagine your frustration. This is why I have been so slow to accumulate adeniums--I know of only one US seller who differentiates between proven and non-proven bloomers. They import their plants but until they have personally seen them bloom, they are marked Not Proven. The other thing I wish sellers would do is show individual specimens so I know the looks of the plant I am buying, rather than just getting random plants I may not like the shape of. To me. adeniums are more about the plant shape rather than the bloom. That's mostly the work I do with my plants. Blooming is just an aside. On the other hand, even though I really dislike pink, I cant help but love the hell out of Puglvr's magnificent plant, for instance. Just check out it's photo on the Adenium Forum front page. If my plant looks like that, I don't care if it's flowers are the color of phlegm lol (actually, I might like that color on a flower) To all the experienced grafters--have you guys tried sending out cuttings for grafting? Do they survive the trip? I have been pruning my adults several times a year and stop only when they threaten to bloom. I just toss the cuttings away. Next time, I'll throw them in your direction, yo. Pagan

Carol Oh my yes....I had forgotten about those egrets until you mentioned it. It was horrible and right across the street from an elementary school. Really was quite unbelievable that there could be so many of the nasty things. So no, the grackles are not as bad as that. But there are more of them in my area than any time before. I truly dislike them. Randy If I didn't live where I do I might be tempted to use like methods of grackle control but would likely end up in jail....haha. However they don't roost on my property they just visit and fly through all time. I really don't know where they are roosting. But don't have large enough trees on our property. I need to post another tread about the potential problem we do have here in our neighborhood and even worse than birds. COYOTES! Believe it or not my across the street neighbor saw two of them right up on her patio looking in the door recently. And her husband has seen the pair two different times with the neighbor's cat cornered! Now this is really crazy living where we live! G.M.

I have had the same issue here with the black colored birds! First, I had a very large group of Starlings. Then, a sizable band of Red-winged Blackbirds showed up. After that,the Cowbirds joined in. Suddenly, from out of the blue, came a ba-zillion Grackles. With their arrival, the other guys sort of moved on! Now, things seemed to have settled down a bit. I still see small numbers of each species, but I am no longer swamped with them!