It's great that you are seeing the birds and butterflies. I think the fluttering dance is a mating thing. I saw what looked like one gulf fritillary on the ground and another one fanning it. I thought the ground one was injured and the fluttering one was helping but it turns out that was a mating behavior, too. We desperately need rain. This is the worst drought eastern Palm Beach and Broward counties have seen in recored history! The critter are suffering. Every time I water the lizards run out to drink and to catch the bugs that crawl out of the mulch. Man, I wish it would rain. Julie in very dry West Palm Beach

Skydiver Yes hummers do exist in the Chicago area. I have several mmembers in the Chicago area. Not all bee Balm and salvias will attract hummers. I have only found one perennial salvia that they use Salvia azurea which is native to many parts of the northeast. There are a couple others that are half hardy and in the right location and enough winter protection they may be hardy. Some salvia greggiis. and Savia reptans fall into that category. Many of the bee Balms are more attractive to the bees. The best one I have found for hummrs is the Jacob's Cline. I have removed all my others. There are people all around the country that normally have decent hummer populations that are wondering where they are this year. If they arrived in the area late they may have started to nest right away so you may not see them unless you are up before dawn or just before sunset. Mine were 3 weeks late returning this year. I do get up at 5a.m. and usually see them around 5:10. Feel free to contact me off list. Penny

We switched to feeding safflower, thistle and upside down suet feeders along with fruit, jelly and nectar, after our first year living in the country. We moved from the city to a rural area in Wisconsin and decided to put nest boxes out for bluebirds and wrens, our first year we had mostly HS but we also had one set of bluebirds and one set of tree swallows. Before the little ones had a chance to fledge the HS killed them and nested on top of them, we were sick over this. I removed all the nest boxes and started researching on how to keep the non-native and rough birds away. The switch to the foods we place out on our property was the biggest part of not attracting the non-natives and rougher birds. When the HS try to take over the nest boxes in the spring I shoot them, it is the best way to keep them out of the box, plus it gets rid of another non-native invasive bird. I tried removing their nests at first but they are persistent and do not give up until you get rid of them. We now get one or two nesting pair of bluebirds and usually four to five nesting pair of tree swallows and a pair of nesting wrens(all have fledged within the last week and a half) the few starlings that come in the yard to feed on bugs in the grass do not stick around long ( they get shot as well). This is not intended to offend any bird lovers ( we are bird lovers at our house ) it is only to tell how we deal with the invasive non-native birds that are taking over the territory of our native song birds.

christine - I would probably lick my own fingers. My dogs views on peanut butter... "what kind of pill are you trying to get me to take this time?" :) mimipadv! I just had my first blue bird! Before I could really enjoy his presence, something scared off all the birds, darn it. From what I've read, blue birds can be hard to attract so I wasn't expecting to see one so soon. Hopefully this one will come back and bring a friend or two.