Hi Brenda , the mystery bird could be about 8-9 inches but in a slim way not a chunky way. It really gave my bluebirds a working over too! LOL...It seems to have taken a liking to a particular part of my chainlink fence that happens to be close to the nestbox so this upsets the bluebirds. It wouldn't give in to the blues either it kept its ground. Which usually the blues run other birds away from their box but this pretty bird wont go. The way it twitters i thought maybe a swallow but it just doesnt look right and it does look like a king bird shape. You may be right about it being a kingbird because i looked at some pics of kingbirds to see if it could be and i really think you are right. But it says the kingbird we should have has a white belly and this one has a yellow belly. It also puffs its head feathers up when it gets upset so it looks like it has a fuzzy hat on. Its really cute and holds itself very straight and perches on the fence to see insects in the grass. Do you think it could be a western kingbird that got lost? I saw it flying with the group of sparrows that are here migrating so maybe it flew here with them. I didn't see it here all summer, just this past week when all the little different sparrows started showing up. What if it got with the wrong group of migrants? I think they go to south America dont they? Maybe mine can go to Florida and keep warm. I haven't seen it today but there has been a big gray hawk hanging around all day so i haven't seen many birds at all today. I dont blame them, its a big gray hawk that i thought was an owl at first but then i seen it was a hawk. So i guess that was my bird sighting today! LOL.... Thanks Brenda Bonnie

Wooo!!! Cat, I am stuck at home because of the snow storm so wandered around here not looking at anything in particular and came upon your thread. I totally agree with you on the shower curtain choice. Regardless of whether I have the money to spare or not, keeping those suckers clean is a nuisance over time. We have a glass shower door that was installed back in 2003 and I can't tell you how much I hate cleaning it. Not that the door is all that dirty, but a shower curtain is way easier, and you can change the look/style whenever you feel like it. Can't do that with a pricey shower door. Anyway, everything looks lovely as usual, including the "prom" dress :-) Love, love those circular tiles, and the floor tiles that look like fabric. Gorgeous. What colour is that again? It looks greyish on my monitor.

Great photos Joan. I'm envious. Both shots are great. I haven't quite gotten the sharpness consistently I'd like with my latest gear. Don't know if I'm just not in the lenses' comfort zones too often, or out of the photog's competency zone! Probably more often the latter.

It's so frustrating when the word just doesn't come - glad yours did! I love birds and bird art - if you go to someplace like Etsy and just search for bird paintings many "sets" come up, or artists who paint different birds on the same size canvas so you can create your own set. Good luck!