Glad you found out what it was - the spots fooled me because every hermit thrush I've seen has been much more heavily spotted. Maybe local variations come into play here, or perhaps a young bird ??? FTM, your photos are wonderful. I feel like I can reach out and touch your bloodroots. The second to last one with the fern(???) coming up out of the dried leaves is a great shot. I did notice your bloodroots seem to have double blooms compared to mine. I can't believe your hepatica has already bloomed, I hope I didn't miss mine blooming. I actually used the Roundup concentrate on the cut ends of the honeysuckle and that didn't do it, and didn't help much at the local park which is what they did too. I've thought about cutting it down to a manageable size and spraying the leaves with roundup and then covering it with black plastic bags (which is what I had to do to get rid of some english ivy) but it will be tough to get very far that way considering how much I have. I have been digging some of it and then planting a bush in it's place but it's not feasible to do that with much of it. I am also hesitant to do too much until fall considering how many birds nest in the thickets. Too bad the emerald ash borer doesn't like honeysuckle instead ... big SIGH. That weed wrench looks like a handy tool though, and if it doesn't disrupt the ground as much as digging the bushes up than it might help in preventing new seedlings. I had a major explosion of gold finches this weekend. I stopped counting at 100 - they were fighting over the feeders so bad I did some serious ground feeding. And I think every one of them was singing and chirping, it was incredibly loud. And alot like the peepers, they would all suddenly stop and then one would start, and another and then all of sudden they would all be at it again. Very cheerful on a cold spring day. Also had 5 purple finches, all females and perhaps a young male just starting to show some color. And had a dozen chipping sparrows and three field sparrows, they make the fox and white-throateds look like giants! I was really hoping that I would get Number 100 this weekend with the cold weather but I guess I will have to keep watching.

I've had a fabulous turnout of migrating warblers, etc this fall! Or maybe because I'm too pooped to do anything but sit at the window and stare, I'm seeing more this year. I still have hummers, even a few males although it's mostly females and younguns. Around here they say to leave your feeders up until end of November, that it won't keep the ruby-throats from migrating and there are more and more sightings of west coast hummers who end up on the east coast in late fall and early winter. There was an Anna and a rufous hummer in Ohio in the last two years. One showed up in December and stayed until the middle of January. Nobody is quite sure why there is an increase of these hummers but there are more and more reports each year. It would be fun to see a hummer in December but I'm afraid I would worry myself sick! Most of my summer birds are still here. The wood thrush no longer sings (sniff, sniff) but I still hear his little "Pip, pip, pip". I've seen both the summer and scarlet tanagers in the last week - both had molted into their winter colors -why can't they show themselves in their pretty summer attire? I've added two new yard birds this fall - a warbling vireo and a yellow-bellied flycatcher which is one of my rarest yard birds. I've had a nice variety of warblers so far - american redstarts, bay breasted, black-throated green, black-and-white, blackburnian, black poll, blue-winged, canada, cape may, chestnut-sided, magnolia, ovenbird, prairie and tennesee and vireos - red-eyed, warbling, white-eyed, and yellow-throated and a swainsons thrush. I also had a juvenile rose-breasted grosbeak, not sure if it's a migrant or from the pair that I saw this summer. I do love see the fall migrants but I am really going to miss summer ... and the mosquitos and the heat and the drought ....

Interesting about the shells! I'm sure I've seen shells in open places before too. I have at least 4 breeding pairs of goldfinches visiting the nyjer feeder now. I've seen 6 at once of which 4 were males, and 4 females together at a different time so who knows how many are around. I found a pair of Grey Catbirds in my cedar this morning. They looked like they were building a nest, although I doubt it would be in my cedar because it's pretty big and open.

I'm sure your landscape lures more birds into your yard and makes them feel safer when they are visiting your feeders, Gary-. It's great to hear that you have so many wonderful species coming by. I get quite a few goldfinches at a time, too. They seem happiest in flocks, like the chipping sparrows do. But mine LOVE the thistle sock. They will eat sunflower seeds, etc, from the tray feeder, too, but the sock will sometimes be completely covered by clinging birds. Last year they emptied several completely. And they stayed until they were almost in full breeding plumage. It was fun to watch them go from grayish brown and black to brilliant yellow and black. Yep, they are cheerful little birds that brighten the yard, and I'm always sorry to see them go. But when they have buntings with them, both painted and indigo, it's even better. I noticed last year, btw, that the indigo buntings spent as much time picking through the grass as they did on the feeder tray. They were down there with the chipping sparrows an awful lot. Have you seen that, too? Marcia