Mike, Thanks, but they're not all thriving...I've been doing this for a while, and most of my plants are easy to grow. No, I don't have lots of room, but I have enough for now. That could change when I get more plants - it is Christmas, after all. Hi Sharon, Thank you; it's just experience, and trying to not overwater them. Porous mix, eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog Penny, As long as you're keeping them on the dry side (only spritzing, you shouldn't be). Paul, Thanks - me too. Glen, I think it's also called that - I don't really follow the names as well as some folks here do. That is what it's called in Germany, sort of, at least 'Crassula obliqua solana Lemon' n Lime'. Sounds like nomenclutter to me but it's important to know what one's talking about, right, otherwise my dislike of common names means nothing. Josh, I was disappointed in realizing I should have repotted a year ago. The local moose water must agree with it. CG, I'm afraid you'll have to get in line for this one - you're currently about #17, so it will be a while. I'd normally be happy to share, but I can't with this plant yet.

As someone said much earlier in this post, insect-eating birds don't go for birdseed, except for the chickadees. For insect-eating birds, you want a birdbath, and suet. Many more birds will use the birdbath than either suet or birdseed. You will want a shallow birdbath with a rough inner surface, your classic concrete birdbath. Birds won't go in water that's more than a couple inches deep, and they want a rough surface so they don't slip. These are not the easiest to maintain - I've seen birdbaths on the market that are deep and smooth and people think they're better because they won't have to fill them so often, and they'll be easier to clean, but the birds won't touch them. I get birds at my birdbath year round, even when it's been raining for weeks. Robins, jays, towhees, finches, sparrows, warblers, chickadees, bushtits, juncos, you name it. Place it a few feet from shrubbery or a tree, so they can see any cats coming and dive for cover. I love watching them, especially in late summer when the new fledgling birds are learning how to use the birdbath. For suet feeding I have what's called a 'crow cage' from Wild Birds Unlimited. It only allows smaller birds to get to the suet. Means the towhees and woodpeckers can't get it either, but it's necessary to keep the crows and starlings off. I have the suet cage itself suspended about an inch from the bottom of the cage so the flickers can hang from the bottom and reach the suet. The starlings can just barely do that too, but it's hard enough for them that they rarely do so. Ask to see their suet cage setups that keep the starlings off, and you'll see what I mean. I also take down the suet when the starlings are nesting, usually April, and don't put it back up again until they're done in summer. To minimize seed waste I buy straight black oil sunflower seed. It's more expensive than the mixes, but the birds toss out much of what's in the mixes.

Chicadee's are really amazing little birds. I have put out bird feeders all my life and enjoyed casually watching the birds. Prior to last November I simply lumped all Chicadee's into one category in the same way most people do Sparrows until one day I realized that some Chickadees had a white belly while others had a yellowish brown patch on their flanks below the wings. Out of curiosity I looked in a bird book and learned that I was seeing both Black Capped Chickadee's and Carolina Chickadees. At the time I had 5 Pentax 35mm SLR's and an assortment of 11 lenses, but being on fixed income I couldn't afford more that 10 ot 12 rolls of film a month. In mid October I happened to find a used Pentax *ist DL DSLR body on Craigslist for $200, It had no lenses but all the Pentax k mount lenses that I had for my film cameras were compatible with it. Suddenly film and processing cost was no longer an issue and I began shooting upwards of 500 shots a day. While the outdoor temps were still relatively mild I put the camera on a tripod about 20 feet from the bird feeder then I say motionless in a lawn chair and triggered the camera by means of an external shutter release cable, which I held concealed in my pocket. The first week or so that I did that the Chickadees seemed to get bolder and bolder as they flew towards me, sometimes landing on weed tops about 2 feet from my chair. Then they started landing on my camera and one time a bird actually landed on my head while I sat there. I figured by that time the chickadee's were accustomed to my presence so I decided to take it to the next step. I have to fill my feeder at least twice a day and every time I approach to fill it all the birds fly away. I noticed that while the other birds seemed to fly off, the Chicadee's were only going up on low limbs in the tree about 20ft away and I could hear them chirping back and forth to each other, so I thought, I wonder what would happen if I talk to them? Now every time I approach the feeder I call out in a low voice, Chick a dee dee dee, Chick a dee dee dee, and they seem to call right back and as I am pouring the seed in the feeder they were coming closer and closer. Now some of them came right down and sit on the feeder while I am still pouring the seed. I use a two quart plastic pitcher to carry the seed and on more than one occasion I have had Chickadees land on the pitcher and grab a seed before I get a chance to pour it. I can stand right beside the feeder for 10 or 15 minutes and the Chickadees come and go without the least bit of concern about me. One of my birds books says that Chickadees can be tamed and they have a photo of a Chickadee eating seed right out of a gays hand, That is currently my goal, to feed one out of my hand. While doing some further research in my bird books I ran across a couple very interesting facts. Back in the late 1800's people trapped Chickadees and sold them as cage bird pets. I think the fact that I found singularly most remarkable was how they survive in winter. The normal body temperature of a bird is about 100deg F but in order to conserve energy while sleeping Chickadees can actually lower their body temperature 50 deg F.

There is a park near our house that has a pavillian with big windows on one side which bird were constantly hitting and dieing from. I talked with the owners and they ordered these windowalert stickers. The result was incredible, the window strikes dropped by about 80%, only that much because we only put up two per window and there should have been four. They were up a year and this year vandals took them down, put them on the cement floor and spray painted around them. They have more on order though and hopefully we can get them up before the fall migration starts and birds start hitting them again. These really work well and are actually fine to look at. Good luck! Donna Here is a link that might be useful: Window alert decals to prevent bird window strikes