Thank you, Beth! hehehe And Tree, I was wondering if anyone would think I make a habit of hanging out the car window, looking through binoculars as I drive. Ack! The thing is, when you have birded for as many years as I have, you ALWAYS notice birds on the wire or zipping across the road in front of the car. I'm always calling out, "Kestrel ahead!" or "Wood storks!" as I tool down the road, and it only takes the briefest glance, believe it or not. Of course, if I see a glimpse of something that looks unusual, I pull over and get out the glasses for a good look. One thing about having watched birds for such a long time is that you can recognize many of them just by a shape or the way they are sitting, or the way they are flying. There are things that are so distinctive, you don't even have to see the color of the bird to know what it is. A silhouette will often do it. You know how you notice at a glance that Target has Knock Out roses blooming out front when you drive by, or that your neighbor has ivy on his mailbox? It's like that. Something you are interested in always catches your eye, doesn't it? BUT...your advice is sound! I promise to be careful! It wouldn't do to get in a wreck while ogling pileated woodpeckers. Too hard to explain to the police! ;o) Marcia

Wanda, we have the large, black birds eating them also! Between them and the squirrels, they will be all gone very soon. Puglvr, we hopefully will have a warmer winter this year so your new tree can get established. They do like cool weather, but maybe not when they are just planted. I don't know what kind mine are. They are huge trees (35 feet?) that were here when we bought the property. Unfortunately the bulk of the fruit is too high to reach, but the trees give us great shade, so we will never prune them lower. These lychees are not the best variety I don't believe. They taste good, but many of them have large pits. They are fun to eat though. What variety did you plant? Thanks, Katkin! I am going back out there today to see if there's any left. Anna

Hi Kids, Happy New Year to you all. I saw my first Hawk in the yard today. I think it was a Northern Goshawk. I got a few pictures of it which I will post as soon as I am able. It was beautiful. It sounds like we are all enjoying the birds. The worms I always kept on hand for the Blues were live mealworms. I know you can get the freeze dried, but I have always used the live ones. They are not gross at all. They are small, only about an inch, dry and easy to handle...no slime. I order them on line and they arrive in a bag, inside a box. I take them out, put them in a shallow plastic container that has a lid and, put them in the lower part of the refrig. They last for a long time. I would even feed them apples so they stayed plump and happy. I think I got 5,000 for about $15. The Blues LOVED them. I was lucky enough to have a Flicker visit during my PFW count this past week. I was so excited. We seem to have a mini flock of 3 that now visit the suet feeder just about every day. They are so beautiful. I'll try to post the pictures of the Hawk. I would like to know if you all agree wtih my ID of it as a Goshawk. sooey

I'm not sure what species a redtail catfish is, but if it's a member of the North America catfish family, it's a scavenger, meaning that it only eats other critters, dead or alive. Food includes insects, worms, fish; any animal or animal part (slow-moving or no-moving) that smells good, fits in its mouth, and can't swim away. Catfish might dislodge plants in muck while they're searching for food, but they don't deliberately uproot them or eat them.