Hello Everyone, I will post here and on Annie's new thread. Diane, and pjhendrick, I am interested in any creeping phlox that are not already spoken for. Lisa, if no one has shown interest in the dwarf pine, please save for me. Daylilies - several were bringing them, mmqchdygg, I recall and a few others. I have all yellow. If you have any other colors for me to mix in, I would love one. I have promised a spider and a pothos plant to Blake. Will bring something for the table. Have other plants and garden related items to bring, just not fully organized yet... that is my afternoon activity! I do know that I will be bringing a number of Bugleweed Ajuga, Chocolate Chip, as well as a couple Blue Festuca (12" silver-blue foliage grass, grows anywhere! Very pretty no care plant) See you all Sunday. Susan

Dorothy, I'm inclined to think that the long, cold spring was hard on them. We still were having freezing temperatures sporadically as late as the first week in May, and I am willing to bet that had a negative impact on their population. Bird populations do fluctuate naturally on their own too, although I think that the cardinal population here at our place does not fluctuate nearly as much as the population of some other birds. Other possibilities would include: ---heavy spraying of chemical pesticides aimed at pests like grasshoppers in your geographic region, even if you are not using chemical pesticides yourself. When the farmers and ranchers around us spray their pastures heavily because of a severe grasshopper infestation, our bird populations drop fairly quickly, and I feel certain the two are linked. ---as odd and counterintuitive as this will sound, some bird populations drop during years in which there is big cicada hatch. You'd expect the population of birds to soar since there are so many cicadas to eat, but that's not what happens. So, if you had a large number of cicadas this year, they could be responsible. Discovery magazine had a blog post about the relationship between the cicada population and the bird population back in either the summer or the fall. If I can find it, I'll link it. I don't think it offered any conclusions about the relationship between an increased cicada population and a decreased bird population, but it was an interesting article. As for the question of diet, I put out a blend of several different kinds of seeds and have cardinals there eating no matter what is in that mix. If I only put out cracked corn for the doves, I'll find cardinals eating the cracked corn. If I put out sunflower seeds or a wild bird mix that includes sunflower seeds, though, I'll have tons more cardinals. So, I find it hard to imagine that they are staying away because you've been putting out only sunflower seeds. If I don't put out anything at all, they go to the chicken run and eat hen scratch. While they seem to prefer sunflower seeds, they will eat whatever is available. I've never had them disappear because all that I put out was sunflower seeds. We had a lot of cardinals this summer, as we almost always do, but seem to have fewer now. One odd thing I have noticed is that the males are feeding at a spot on the edge of the woods where I normally feed deer, rabbits and squirrels. The females are feeding at a spot just outside my kitchen window where I put out a general songbird blend plus extra sunflower seeds. They are not always as segregated by sex as they have been this fall and winter, and I don't know why it is occurring. I guess the male birds did something stupid (grin) and the females are mad at them and are refusing to be seen in public with them until they straighten up and fly right, pun intended. Some years when we have a higher population of small predators, like bobcats and foxes, the bird population really seems to drop I don't know that the bobcat and fox population is up this year, but the bird population seems like it is down a little bit. We're having more trouble with the population of predators that are larger than bobcats, but I don't know if those larger predators bother with birds. If they are not showing up to eat anything/everything you have out for them in this cold, snowy, icy weather, I am inclined to think the population is at a down cycle and not that they don't like the food you are offering. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Discovery Blog Post: Cicadas/Birds

Ok, I am doing some reseach on the issue. I did find a neat web page which shows us some pics of other similarly affected Cardinals and discusses causes of baldness. Check it out here: http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek030701.html and this: http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~insrisg/nature/nw98/baldbirds.html and this: http://www.birdchick.com/wp/2007/08/bald-cardinals-and-other-bald-birds/ "The thing that I find interesting is that the cardinal that I shot had white skin not dark skin." I wasn't able to find anything which specifically stated the reason why the skin would be white instead of dark, but this is obviously something which isn't so uncommon. I'll keep looking when I get time, and if I find anything else re the white skin, I will come back and post it for you. :o)

Our Cardinals bring us such pleasure. We've noticed the male always appears first, maybe to ck if it's safe enough for her to come. Pairs seem very devoted to each other -the male offers his female tidbits of ??? when she first joins him, looks kinda' like they're kissing. I read they are groundfeeders, and ours must be or like what they find on our lawn a whole lot. It's not unusual to see 4-6 males at a time near flowerbed around two large trees close to the front porch...but if a female drops in her 'mate' chases the other males away. They prefer birdbath in back over ones in front and side yard-perhaps because trees are closer to it. Year before last we had the pleasure of watching a pair build a nest in a very large wreath on one wall of our covered patio. It had bright colored thread woven in & bits of dryer lint tucked in to line it, our contribution decorate the nursery. When two eggs appeared we could hardly wait for the babes to appear! Then very early one morning our Doxie simply would not stop barking or come away from the top step to the entrance near the nest. I went out to see what he was having such a fit over and a snake was coiled up, hiding behind behind a potted plant in the corner! A neighbor came and killed it for me (I was too chicken.) The #&!@$ thing had swallowed both eggs, giving me four MORE reasons to hate snakes -two for the poor parents who were so confused and upset and two for the babies to be. Attempting to save the eggs the man who killed it chopped egg sections out, but they were already broken. They've raided our bluebirds houses too and as far as we're concerned, the only good snake is a dead one.