Thanks everybody :-) Yes Brenda your right that purple flower is Canterbury bells campanula medium i beleive. Sara im so glad you liked it. I have wanted some for years and every time i buy them they die! Sooo i decided i would try to grow them from seed and it took a couple of years but i was so proud when they bloomed this year :-) They will probably die now! Hope not but i expect it. They seem really fragile. Thank you Jean! I just loved watching it zoom around and don't have a clue what it was eating but i hope it was mosquitoes :-) Do they eat mosquitoes? I was so worried for her because she was hanging out on the deck under the gutters that the blue jays love to dig around in and i was worried they would spot her and have a nice juicy bug dinner. She sure looked fat to me. Maybe full of eggs? She seemed to be guarding the birdbath fountain. I just havent ever seen one that big before. Usually they are skinny with lots of wings zooming by but she kept hanging around and i was so excited to see her little plump self. I beleive dragonflies are carnivorous aren't they? My son was so excited too. I love nature. I will definitely keep my eyes out for the lovely jewelwings Jean. Thank you :-) Brenda so glad you liked Herman! He/she has me trained. After breakfast or dinner i always carry the scrapes out with some bread and dog food to feed what ever comes by for a visit. Hermon is always sitting in the tree waiting and will "CAW" for me to hurry up. LOL...I hurry up too :-) The Bluejays have fits when Hermon is around but i love him/her anyway even if she eats the other birds babies its only to feed his own. Herman keeps ALL hawks and owls in their place too. I have seen him chase and attack a redtail hawk before. DO NOT mess with Herman! LOL...I feel really touched that he has made a connection with me and the food too. Hermon just had some babies come by for a visit but they wouldn't come down to eat. They just tried to hang on to the branches they were on and flopped and squawked a lot :-) Some didnt hang on to good and fell off so it was kinda funny to watch. Hope they come back for some more nibbles soon. They are always welcome. I will know they are here when the little Bluejay alarms go off. Life is good :-) Bonnie

Let's close this thread. It dates back to early 2015 and is way too long and it confuses people when they see two Birds and other mobile features... threads going at the same time. There's a later thread, Birds and other mobile features in the garden 2015 #11, that's current and will continue until it gets too long and the 2016 threads start. In general, I have no problem if people want to continue a discussion on an earlier thread with relevant comment, but newer posts are better put in context with newer threads (that sounds a little convoluted but I hope it makes sense). Claire

I love all of your great photos and stories. That female bluebird looks like she's asking, "What do you mean, you finished all the mealy worms?" I am very partial to CWs. Great photo. We've got the usual winter gang here, except I haven't seen any red-breasted nuthatches, nor brown creeper. Lately a couple of red-bellied woodpeckers. The turkeys come daily, but are less tame than they were in the fall. This is a good time of year to get up at 2 AM, dress warmly, take your iPhone with a few owl call bookmarks, and go owning. Screech owls will fly right across your path to a recording of their kin. Some birding groups have late winter outings and occasionally there are members who aren't afraid of looking unskilled and imitate owl calls. I've had various birds ome to recordings. Be patient. Take hot cocoa ;)

I haven't been here in a long while because 1) I went to visit my grandchildren and my daughter & son-in-law in France. And it was wonderful! and 2) I've been doing a lot of political activity work since I returned. But now I'm back. I suppose I could wait for the next thread ... a September thread ... but was curious to see what's been happening here. I'm posting the following photos, taken by my husband a few days ago. Our neighbors put up a wood duck box at their part of the river, but it hasn't been used much. Except for a week ago when a young Egret decided to perch on it for a long, long time. In fact, it has used this spot for several days now. The series of photos show the Egret .... Looking over the river which he/she mostly does... Often standing on one leg .... Frequent preening .... Possibly looking for a friend. I'm guessing it's too late for a mate? Molie