This year we've had an influx of birds. I think the reason is that we have a number of shrubs that are maturing and starting to produce more and more fruit. We don't have a feeder filled at all, just filling up the bird bath. I counted 7 robins yesterday and there's at least one pair of catbirds, and an oriole stopped by the other day. All of them are hanging around the vegetable garden and bird bath. I was watching them with the binoculars this morning and the catbird pair was hopping in and out of the patch of Cilantro, pecking away at what I imagine are insects. Same pair was having a good time all around the cabbage plants. I don't have any seedlings per se to damage, and I'd be surprised if they were doing more than just looking for insects. My only concern is the droppings that are showing up on the foliage of some of the plants.

Our desert Thrashers will peck tomatoes open to get the juice, Brown thrashers are omnivores, so maybe they are pecking open the peppers to get the developing seeds. The cabbage - maybe a rabbit or rodent.

This really has become the year of the thrashers. Per Donna's suggestion, I've been putting out C&S Peanut suet nuggets. I don't know if the thrashers eat it - I haven't seen it - but it's disappearing. There's plenty of other food around and insects too. My yard/garden is getting more and more overgrown so there are lots of hiding places for birds in shrubs and small trees. I'll walk by a shrub not noticing any birds and be startled by flight all around me. Good for the birds, not so good for the idea of a tidy garden. An adult has been seen brazenly foraging around most days, and yesterday I saw what I think are two juveniles calmly preening on the winterberry (the photos were taken from the kitchen window). So much for the "secretive" Brown Thrasher. Claire

Thanks! It just pleased me to see a bird that's usually very secretive suddenly come forward and enjoy itself in front of the camera. The sand and stones was an afterthought - I live in New England and it's always a pain to get a pole into the ground in between the subsurface rocks. Being on the coast, I have plenty of sand and stones. It's pouring rain now, and it must be hard for the hummers to get nectar from flowers or find insects. They're fighting over the feeder which has an umbrella over it so it's reasonably dry. Sort of like sitting on the porch with a drink watching the rain. Claire