Hi! Sorry that I have not replied until now. I have been SOO nusy in my garden and in others gardens! LOL I have several Amur Maples in my backyard that are doing wonderful! In this area they seem to do better than in other places west of I-15. I have mine in soil that I classify as "Even heavier clay" LOL I have tried to did into the soil to plant hosta and ferns and other shade loving plants, but I can not get a little hand shovel to go in more than an inch or so. Daylillies do wonderful in just about any area. Stella d'oros are stunning when planted with a contrasting color such as purples and oranges. You might want to let your neighbors know that their water is running off into your yard, this tells me that they are over watering. They might want to cut back watering times to intervals... say they water for 20 minutes, but ten or more minutes the water is running off.... Suggest to them to water in the morning for five minutes, then have their sprinklers on a curcuit and each station water for those five minutes. Then repeat the cycle 4 times.... They still get their 20 minutes of watering in, but it all goes to their lawn.... not yours. I would love to take a look at your yard and give you some pointers. You can email me @ jkeamommy@yahoo.com Have an awesome day! SongBirdMommy :-)

How sweet! Thank you for offering your expertise; ID questions are always being posted here

I have a small nest in my garden bed tall grass in my front yard that looks just like this with 6 ggs. I am in Louisville Ky. I was cutting the grass back when I saw it. I stopped and tried to move some of the remaining grass back around it. I'm concerned because it's in direct sunlight for most of the day. Will the bird come back to sit on it???

stay with it and try to catch them when the light is strong enough to see by and you might just be rewarded by what can only be described as a bird vortex...when they finally go to roost they will swirl tighter and tighter around the chimney or other suitable spot and one by one drop out of this formation to make their final approach. Unfortunately, if you are in a more heavily urban area with too much light pollution, the street lights coming on right at dusk might make seeing activity above them tough, but keep trying. Its a marvelous thing to watch. The nightjars are much much larger and have a loud distinctive "BEER!" call, and can be heard cruising above parking lots long into the night. for a recording of chimney swift twittering and other id tips, copy paste this: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i4230id.html