Thanks Miguel, I have their catalog :-). I think BorS explained their system of ordering to me. The truth is - I DO NOT NEED MORE CLEMATIS, LOL! We just moved to a new home. The lot is very small. Half of it spoiled (in terms of planting new plants) by mature Maple trees. I will have to figure out how to squeeze my Clemmies (about 40 of them now) in the garden after we will redo some hardscaping. I also have many Lilies and Peonies in pots. I would really appreciate if somebody can stop me! But you know how it works: you see a nice variety and you say: "Oh, this is shade tolerant! I need one!" Then you see poor neglected plants al Lowe's at $2 for the 2 Gallon pot. You think that they have to be rescued. And so on... The only reason I ordered from Bluestone this year is my greed. I could not resist their 1/2 off sale, so I ordered 4 more for $3-5 each. All four are doing great. I ordered from the Silver Star because I fell in love with 'Fransisca Maria' when I saw it in bloom at the local nursery. I added 'Mr Spenser Castle' because shipping cost will stay the same. I am so weak:-)

I started out feeling like you do, Barb. I couldn't see myself killing an innocent bird. Then came the summer of the bluebird massacre. I lost 3 adults to house sparrows as they were building nests or sitting on eggs. Once the bluebird is inside the house, the sparrow comes in on top of him, and he can't get out or defend himself. And the last one, the male, wasn't dead. He had been pecked in the head until he was bloody and disabled, and I had to finish the job. That's when I decided that if I was going to have bluebird and martin houses, it's my responsibility to keep the birds safe. I installed a sparrow trap in one of the martin house holes, and trapped many a housesparrow. I would then get them into a plastic bag (the ones the newspaper come in work great) and shoot the HOSP with a bb gun. The numbers of sparrows has diminished drastically, but they still show up on occasion, and I have to be diligent. It doesn't take them long to wreak havoc. This summer, I lost all the eggs in 3 purple martin nests in no time at all. The thing that irks me, is they don't have to be so destructive. The martins would let them live in their house too, they don't have to kill everything in sight. And they don't even need to nest in a nestbox - they'll nest anywhere - even on the front of our Wal-mart store. Texas Carol

whenever I hear people discussing ways to discourage the sparrow I have to ask myself why? As You can easily see from my photo's when there is an abundant supply of food the birds will all mingle well. From my observation it is only when the food is in short supply that they really begin to be territorial. The question then becomes, why is the seed in short supply? No doubt the answer here is simple economics. People don't care to spend a lot of money on expensive birdseed, only to have it consumed by the less desirable birds and they don't get to see the species they are really interested in. From my experience the solution here is to shop around for your wild bird seed. By example, we have a local store that caters specifically to feeding and attracting wild birds. They sell a general mix of wild bird seed for $15 for a 20lb bag. On the other hand, Walmart has 20lb bags of the same seed for $10, however at Walmart it is a seasonal item and by now you probably can't find it. How would you like to find a year around source that has a better selection at prices far below the average retail store prices? In almost every community there is a store that specializes in selling feed, grain and hay for horses or farm animals. When my sister goes to the feed mill to buy feed for her horses I tag along and buy 50# bags of premium wild bird seed (mixed seed & peanuts) for $12 plus I buy a 50# bag of black oilseed sunflower seed for another $13. I then mix the two together and I end up with a premium blend for an average of $.25/lb. If you cannot find a Feed & grain supply in your community check out TSC (Tractor Supply Co.) TSC is also a great place to find feeders of all types for prices far below what you find in the regular retail stores, but then feeders are so simple to build i don't see why anyone would pay the prices they ask in most stores. While we are on the subject of bird feed, you may be surprised at how much you throw away every month without realizing it. When you bake a ham or a roast trim off the excess fat and put that in your suet feeder, the birds love it. At my house we all love to eat acorn or butternut squash. When you hollow out the seeds put them out for the birds, here again, they love it. Making a salad? Save the carrot peelings of the birds and by all means, be sure to save your orange or grapefruit peelings. I have seen a Bluejay grab an entire half section grapefruit peel and fly it up into the pine tree. Stale popcorn, potato chips, pretzels, breakfast cereal and cookies all go over well with the birds and as silly as it may sound, even leftover porky beans, whole kernel corn or green beans will quickly disappear when the birds find them. As you can see, I have taken feeding the birds rather seriously however to tell the truth it is more an means to an end. Since I retired last June I have taken up nature photography as a hobby, and since it is a bit too cold to get out in the woods like i would like to do, this is a way i can bring nature to me while i comfortably sit in the house...LOL. Gein that the subject of this thread was how to attract cardinals I thought i might post a couple more Cardinal Picks, along with one of my favorite pics of a Bluejay.

Yes, guides with arrows pointing to field marks aren't the ultimate in identification. Guides with notes about other birds with similar characteristics and then explanations about what to look for the tell the two apart are helpful. I have found that in most cases where IDs are difficult it's really beneficial to research more than one resource. We really have some tools now that weren't commonly available even fifteen years ago and that's access to the internet and cheaper digital cameras. I keep a digital right by the regular birding window. I take rapid frames of the birds in question from as many angles as I can. Sometimes you don't have time to focus and be fussy. Getting a less than perfect picture is not always a failure. If it helps you to catch the target sitting next to a known bird, immediately you have a handle on size. I also prefer real photographs I find on this forum, because painted representations just leave too much to artistic license. LOL. I sometimes wonder how many really cool sparrows I missed by logging them as something common? So many folks just causally dismiss them because they look similar. This is where you sometimes find your lifers! Keep a notepad handy to your observation station to mark down anything you notice on field marks. I have a good memory but the image in the brain can play tricks on you quickly. Draw a pic if you must, and try to catch some photos. Document, document and document.