Currently, dead. I didn't think it would get cold enough here (W. desert Colorado) to require a pond de-icer, so I just used bubblers. Well, after 2 weeks touching down into the -5 range, the bubblers froze up and eventually the ice was over 12" thick. Moral: get a pond deicer. I have raised lots of comets (ie feeders) and shubunkins and sarassas (the red & white ones) in a tiny pond in Michigan. As long as I had a de-icer, the fish did fine over real nasty winters (2-3 weeks where the High might get up to zero degrees F.) They also mixed things up, so to speak, so there were all sorts of babies. :)) I would suggest you quarantine any feeders, if possible; sometimes they are parasitized and you don't want to get everyone sick.

love mulliens. i transplant them and feed them, they get to be 4 feet wide and gorgeous, can take drought and nothing chews on them. later the goldfinches love their seeds and each spring i get a new batch. easy to pull out if you don't like the number of them or the location. purple violets, for sure, but they can be invasive. and love chicory but can't get it to germinate to save my soul. i need to just go and pull up some plants along the road but i never think of it, as they bloom at that time of year when you are just worn out from gardening. also, got a freebie from the birds: partridge berry... looks like a miniature euonimous (spelling?) and thrives in shade, under hostas and covers a nice mounded border in the north areas. wish it would spread faster!

Yup, definitely a green heron, but not an immature. The colors are very vivid on that guy - its actually an adult in breeding plumage (the first picture shows the plumage very well - looks like extra light colored feathers on the back)

This look was thru an editing and plugins program...The originals came out darker and when I tried to bring out details it was very noisy, then tried a noise removal program but lost even more detail. I use Irfanview alot for editing. There are all kinds of compatible filters and plugins that you can add to it. The plugin's I used for this was Topaz Simplify and Topaz Adjust... In the camera you can do some pretty cool things. Through "Set Picture Control" (its in the shooting menu) you can use 'standard' 'neutral''vivid' and 'monochrome' and within each of those modes you can do adjustments and get some neat looking photos...Of course this is probably more info than you need right now, didn't mean to blab on!!! but if you have any questions feel free to ask, I may or may not know the answer... ;)