Oh yeah, the hummies will chase away anything! They zip and zoom around butterflies and the butterflies try to follow them as well. I also have several feeders hanging from my back porch eave...where the suppport beams are made of cedar...of which I have those big black carpenter bees make holes in. Those bees try to get into their holes and the hummies chase them away. I like that. Of course, the hummies will 'try' to scare off the mockingbird and great kiskadees - talk about a real territorial battle!!! Guess the most fun is just sitting back and watching them chase each other all over the place. They are getting quite bold and hover under my porch roof. You can see them doing that air dance fractions of inches from the ceiling. I keep trying to get photos but am always out in the yard when they do that. ~ Cat

Get your favorite feeder and put it next to the door or window. Stay away and keep the pets and kids away. Hopefully he/she will go to the feeder then find his/her way out. They get confused and fly up.

An owl's eye is probably the most efficient organ of vision possesed by any animal. It has a visual sensitivity at least 35 times greater than ours, and possibly as much as 100 times greater. They can see well in both light and dark. They can't roll their eyes in the sockets because their eyes aren't round. They're more like tubes. To make up for that, they can rotate their heads maybe as much as 270 degrees horizontally and 90 degrees or more vertically. Owls also have great hearing. The "ear tufts" of feathers on top of their heads are not ears and have nothing to do with hearing. A bird's ears are holes in the sides of their heads, covered with feathers. Owls especially can hear high sounds like the squeaking of a mouse, or a mouse scurring across a field, twigs breaking, that kind of hunting noises. Do you know if there is anything I can do to encourage them to stay? Barred owls eat mice and other small mammals, as well as frogs, birds, and snakes. They can also wade into the water to catch fish. They like small prey they can swallow whole. Larger prey is ripped into chunks. They digest what is digestible, and cough back up and spit out a pellet of what is not digestible. Scientists examine those pellets to figure out their diets. CAN an owl kill a dog or cat? Oh my yes. Owls can and do attack, kill and eat small dogs and cats, although they prefer smaller puppies and kittens. It's not real common; it's not their food of first choice, but it happens once in a while. We had a Great Horned Owl in our last neighborhood that was killing feral cats -- according to an owl expert I talked with. Owls can swoop on their prey so quietly they take them by surprise; their feathers are fringed in such a way as to absorb noise. Owls usually behead their prey, and almost certainly eat the eyes first. So if you find a dead animal and the head and eyes are intact, it almost certainly was not an owl. A Great Horned Owl weighs about 4-5 lbs, and a grown Barred Owl is about the same I think, so it's not like they're going to fly away with heavy prey. The GHO is a little stronger than the Barred. The good news is they only hunt at night. So watch your small and baby pets at night and don't leave them out alone -- especially during nesting season when the owls have young to feed. Owls will attack a human too (not for kill/food of course), generally to scare you away from their nests. They have very nasty talons and can be very aggressive during nesting season so if they swoop you, stay out of that area after that for a couple of months. You might want to learn what months the Barred Owls nest in your area. I am not saying you should be terrified of owls. That would be silly. But you should have a healthy respect for them and some knowledge. Here, watch these daytime territorial attacks to see how brave and aggressive an owl can be... Fearless owl Here is a link that might be useful: Owl attack

Hi karen, kellykath, firsthouse, yesa (is that everyone?!) - I too am renovating a 1950s ranch and just saw this post!! I am a recent member of Gardenweb and have been mostly lurking in the kitchen forum (thank you, firsthouse, for your mudroom post!!) but thought I'd check this section out! We are just beginning to embark on our remodel - we have a u-shape ranch and are adding along the back of the house... basically enlarging the kitchen and family room while adding a hearth room and master suite. We also are going to have a terrace accessible from the kitchen, family room, and master, which I'm SO excited for! Our plans are pretty much set - minus final kitchen design... although I've been pooring over them and making notes to tweak (i.e. the mudroom and a possible bath layout change). We are working with a design/build company so non-major changes here and there are supposedly OK. We just bought this house so we haven't lived in it yet which is tough... but we moved from a couple of miles away so were very familiar with the neighborhood. Anyway, in terms of progress we are just in the demo stage - so far things are going well but I'm nervous about the excavation stage as I'm know that can be a spot where things creep up! I'm sure I'll be checking in - how are your remodels going??