Cathy, My yard is barren pretty much. LoL I have a couple lantana planted. I had to do a total burn down of the lawn. It was over ran by broadleaf, invasive thistles, bindweed and gods above knows what else. We were gone for almost a year. When we moved in here it was pretty bad to begin with. (A foreclosure property.) Anyway...Starting over completely! I just wanted desperately to try and snap a picture or three...Ah well! Next year! :) I'll have things coming up! I have dill, fennel, lantana, tropical milkweed just to name a couple of things. I'm going to try my hardest to draw them to me instead of me following them! I surely felt silly wandering around 1/4th of an acre trying to catch an image of them. I'm sure you all can picture that! *g* yeah, yeah... laugh along with me, because I am giggling about it. I know how silly it had to have looked! Anyway, for now...I'll just keep oogling everyone elses photos! ~Tina Marie

Beautiful bird! I've never had one at my feeder, but I'm not in a great location. Lately, lots of Palm Warblers, Yellow-Rumped Warblers, Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers, a pair of Phoebes, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Blue Jays, Cardinals and Dove (mostly White-Winged). I still have a resident Red-Shouldered Hawk patrolling the area, but he's now been joined by a Cooper's Hawk. The song birds better keep looking up! Hope your bunting stays with you awhile! wt

Any feeder in a storm, eh? I have had feeders out for many a year, and I have seen a lot of things come and go, some of which aren't classified as seed eaters (Carolina wrens VERY often, mockers from time to time, etc) but I would be thrilled to have warblers stop by my feeders. It would make it SO much easier to see and enjoy them than the way I have to do it now...craning my head back so far it feels like my neck will break just to catch a passing glimpse of them WAY up in the trees. Of course, sometimes I will get lucky and they will show up at my birdbaths for a few weeks. That's always fun. My favorite was a pair of parulas who both would jump into the deepest part of the bath, and pop straight up out again. They looked to be completely submerging themselves in a fast dunk and then rocketing straight up again! Normally the little guys don't care for the deep water and will stand on the edge or on a rock and just lean forward to dip their chests in, but this pair were like Olympic divers! (I gave them 10's consistently.) The wonderful thing about nature is no matter how much you learn, there are still so many surprises out there. *going to get up tomorrow HOPING for a black throated blue or an ORIOLE...better yet!...at my feeder!!* Marcia

maryanne: Thanks. Its amazing but I took both photos from my deck. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to aim the camera effectively yet. Both birds flew directly over me and were sailing. The back of my house and deck face a valley with a creek at the bottom about 100 feet or so below the house. The land on other side of the creek rises more slowly to about the same height of my house. The large raptors catch the breeze coming up the hills and they really seem to enjoy it. The vultures are very simple to identify (if I can identify them, anyone can). As you can see, the turkey vulture appears to have a white bottom from tip to tip around the back of its wing. It is large--about 6' across. The black vulture has white only on the tips of its wings and is only about 5' across. Up close the turkey has a red head and the black has a grey head. I've found that the turkey vultures will come down to check me out when I am outside working. They just fly above me about 30' up or so. They will also fly through the woods (when leaves are off the trees) cutting a trail in and out of the trees. I have no idea why they do this since it appears a bit dangerous for a 6' bird. Its almost as if the turkey vultures want to show off. The black vulutres do not do this. They seem more aloof. The read tailed hawk was also enjoying a sail without flapping. That is why I think its tail was completely opened. It was just above me and I couldn't focus on it so I just clicked the camera and looked and there it was--just dumb luck. Last week, I heard what sounded like a death scream in the front yard. I looked up and it was 3 of these hawks making passes at each other. The bald eagles are less common than the hawks here. However, they do land in the trees in back of my house. From the top of the trees, they can survey their kingdom. With some luck, I should get a chance at an image within 100 feet or so.