lol Bob. Elizabeth roflmao that is funny and probably more fitting for these times. MJ thanks...that was a special moment and I did make one just now. My I would be out taking pictures ALL the time lol. This morning I thought how nice it would be if now a blue jay would show up and pose for a picture. A short while later low and behold there was one on the pecan tree. BUT:..I opened the door and the noise made him take off. Kristy it is a feeder. The squirls hang on it on top with their feet...head down and eat from it too lol I DO need to get a house for them. But the neighbor has a real big one. ......NO it is a SHE roflmao Sounds like it is hardy and will be ok. Oh your yard will be even prettier come spring....the gazebo will look very gorgeous! Lucy

Sandy, I believe you are correct, that it is "The Laugher", or Charadra deridens. I thank you and Sherry for the lookups. I googled images on line and the little face looks the same as the 'Laugher'. I wonder if he hitched a ride in on a Butterfly Bush I bought yesterday? I watered the plant well after placing it on the deck and the watering might have caused him to move off of it. Since I didn't know what he would eat, I put him down in the garden last night. I hope he finds something he can eat as he was so sweet. Yes, Susan, that little face was just precious. It reminds me of the faces of the little white seal pups with the big eyes. Susan, my redrings are doing fine so far, except for one baby. It dried out in the top, then the leaves slowly dried up and fell off. The little stem is now drying out. I can't see a wound on the stem so I don't know what might have happened. I'll look for it next spring, hoping the roots will survive. Even though I had several RedRing flower heads, not one seed pod was produced! It blooms the earliest of all the milkweeds I've tried to grow, maybe there aren't enough pollenizers around that early in the spring. This might be part of the reason it is declining in the wild. Although, come to think of it, the wild one I found two years ago was blooming later in the summer but it looked like it had been mowed down at some point so maybe it was a second growth I found. I'm so nervous to mess around very much with the RedRing MW; just trying to keep hands off and let nature take care, although I do check them over each day. It is such a pretty plant; hope we can get some more growing and producing seed. I did have one baby actually bloom this year so I'm hopeful it will produce several flower heads next season, along with the wild one. Last year the wild one only put up one stalk (if I'm remembering correctly) and this year it put up four stalks and all had several flower heads, just no seed pod. Do you have RedRing growing in your garden? Mary

It most likely is an older baby cardinal. The photo above is a very young bird. What you have described sounds like a bird that is at an age between the fledgling photo above and an adult. We have many here in NJ and it took me awhile to figure out what they were. It takes some time for there color/markings to come in. They have a similar pitch to their call as an adult, but the pattern is a "tweet tweet tweet" or "peep peep peep". They are very vocal when hungry and the parents are usually close by. We had a mating pair that had a female and male baby. The father would constantly be feeding the male, but the female baby was so much more self-sufficient. She would eat seeds off the ground with her mother. Eventually the mother went over and gave the male baby a peck. It was hilarious!!

I understand your pain. Yesterday, I got my hair cut and the stylist gave me a lovely blow dry, finishing it with hair spray. My next stop was at an unenclosed shopping center. Normally, I park at one end and walk to the other and back, checking in at B&N, Pier 1, Home Goods and Staples. It was sprinkling, but I didn't want to hassle with an umbrella. Unfortunately, when I exited Staples, it was pouring buckets. By the time I reached the car, I was soaked to the skin. I couldn't even get a comb or a brush through my sopping wet hair because the hair spray was acting like concrete. I needed to go to the grocery store, but I gave up and went home because I looked and felt like a drowned rat. We ate cereal for dinner. LOL!