I don't know which they like better, since I've never put up a feeder. But I do know that with flowers alone, you can attract regular visits from the hummingbirds! Each year, there are more flowers growing in the gardens than the last. Once the Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) goes into full bloom, the hummers will visit the flowers regularly until they are ready to leave in the fall. After the Bee Balm, the Lobelia cardinalis blooms, and then the Salvia splendens and coccinea, and the Cardinal climber. These are all hummingbird favorites. The flowers seem to be visited about every 15-20 mintues. Often I'll see 2 hummers, tussling and chasing each other around the flowers and yard. Last summer, there were 2 females fighting over the Lobelia cardinalis, and a male flew into the fracas, probably the mate of one of the females. Three hummingbirds were the most I've seen at one time. I have a very native and natural backyard, so their needs for habitat and insects are satisfied as well. It also helps that a couple of the neighbors have nice gardens too.

I haven’t had this experience (yet) because I haven’t embarked on my new gardening lifestyle. But, next spring will be a new day. I wonder if this damage occurs mostly in the spring, or if it is related to the birds raising young. Baby birds cannot eat seeds, and parents need to find insects or worms to feed their growing family. If insects are in short supply, maybe they resort to leaves. Are those of you who have had damage located in cities or suburbs, where there might be a limited supply of wild plants or insects? Maybe try planting a bed of sprouts for the birds and covering the real garden. They might also need the moisture from the leaves, if there isn’t a nearby source of water. Install a bird bath? Just my ponderings.

Dorothy, I believe the calling or honking is between family members, like parents and children, and is how they keep up with each other's whereabouts as they fly. I saw purple finches at the finch feeder just yesterday and that's the first time this fall I saw any bird at the feeder. It is half empty, so clearly they've been visiting it, but not when I've been outside. Jeanie, With the hummingbirds, I only know the migration has begun because suddenly the hummingbird traffic at the feeders increases a lot. It happens as early as early August some years and not until late August in other years. The major increase in hummer traffic lasts maybe a month and then tapers off, although I still might have occasional slowpokes passing through even well into October. Also, I've noticed we see ruby-throats, rufous and black-chinned hummers during spring and fall migration, but generally only the rubies stay here. So, when I see rufous and black-chinned hummers either in spring or late summer, they are the migrants. I hate the black snakes because they kill our chickens and also eat eggs. We have a lot more trouble with the rat snakes killing chickens that with chicken snakes killing chickens. It is always somthing, I guess. Without cats to control the rodents, I expect we'd have a huge rodent and snake problem, so I greatly appreciate the cats efforts at rodent control. Some years we see the geese in fall headed south, but we always see them headed north in spring. I am not sure if I am not outside at the right times in the fall to see them, or what, because if I see them headed north (and I always do), that clearly means they had to have come south at some earlier time. A lot of waterfowl overwinter at the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge, which is in Texas near Pottsboro near Lake Texoma, and so is a few miles east/southeast of my part of Love County. I've often wondered if the geese that I'm not seeing in the fall are taking a route slightly east of us and stopping to rest at the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge before heading further south. When we lived in Fort Worth, I saw the geese every year, and they always flew over my brother's place near Crowley too. Here, geese sightings are much more hit and miss in the fall but very consistent in the spring. Normally we have ducks move in to live on/near our big pond, but it was dry for so long that there aren't any here this year. We've always had a lot of turtles here because of the creeks and ponds, but the last three years, one large one (she's about the size of a dinner plate) has laid eggs right under the plum tree in our yard. The raccoons always dig up and eat the eggs laid near the ponds and creeks, so maybe by laying the eggs further from a body of water, her babies have a chance to hatch out. So, having the turtle digging in the yard (an activity that freaks out the cats) and laying eggs is now one of the signs of spring we watch for. Susan, It does sound like a Carolina Wren. I remember that Randy used to have wrens nest in his garage and/or greenhouse there in central OK. Tracy, How cool is it that you have the lovebirds? My son is a tropical bird lover and has two sets of lovebirds that are sitting on eggs in their little nests right now. The flycatchers are still here, so if you ever get to move back, you won't have to miss them any more. Jeanie, I think that Chuckwill's Widows are fairly unattractive as birds go, but not as ugly as the Vultures. Dawn

Bob, Great Shot, glad to see some of your finches are already molting to their summer breeding plumage, that means spring is coming,,,Hurrah!! Fortunately we got a nice sunny 35degF day today so I was able to get a shot from my bedroom window showing my whole feeder setup. The first shot is looking east from my bedroom window. In this shot you can see my seed hopper and suet feeders on the Maple tree, which is 60ft from my camera position. This location is working very well because many of the birds roost in the Maple tree during the day. Although you can barely see it in the photo about 20ft to the right of the Hopper there is a 65ft high pine tree that affords great cover for the smaller birds. Ten feet to the left of the Maple tree there is a small Butternut tree that is a favorite roosting place for the Morning Doves. I generally see upwards of 35 doves in that tree each morning. Another 15 ft to the left is a second 60ft Pine tree and behind the feeder sight you can see an 18 acres open meadow. You can see the woods are the far side of the meadow. That woods extends for about a square mile and it is mostly old stand hardwoods. Across the road to the left of this photo is another 300 acre hardwood stand, some new growth near the road, but old stand hardwoods from about 100 feet off the road. In the foreground to the left you can see my old garment hanger with the Niger & mixed seed tubes. On the left end on top you can see the plastic bucket lid that I use for a platform feeder. From my vantage point I generally use a 300mm lens to shoot birds on the hopper, suet feeder or on the ground below the hopper, while I use a 200mm to shoot close ups of the birds on the garment rack feeders. As you can see, all the birds at my feeders seem to play nice and I see very little competition.