I came to this forum in search of this very same topic. I have not fed hummers in the past, I was really just working on getting my gardens established. Last fall I had a hummer come through my yard and I didn't even have a feeder out (I remember seeing him at one of my perennials but I don't recall which one.) Anyway, this year I've added more hummer-friendly flowers even though none are blooming right now I did set my feeder out 3 days ago just in case. My neighbor told me she had a Hummer at her feeder last week so I'm guessing I might've missed my window. I've noticed that the robins (most numerous bird in my yard) are constantly flying around the HB feeder and landing on the shepards hook that the feeder is on. The feeder is Very close to a small lilac shrub (didn't bloom this year - too new I think) and a very mature cherry tree. All the birds in my yard LOVE the cherry tree. I haven't even had to set out a bird feeder this year, I just toss stale bread out once every few weeks and they have a field day between that, the cherries and the worms/grubs/insects in my yard. I just wonder if it's too much bird activity for hummers?

Wow this is an old thread! Well, I do believe it was a fisher cat. We have them here now and several of them too! I had seen one squashed in the road a few weeks back. They are quite mean critters. Since I started this thread years ago there was a woman who was running/ walking her dog in Ct. At black pond. Which is maybe 10 to 15 minutes from my house, anyway she and her dog were attacked my a juvenile mountain lion. I hear she and her dog survived but I do not know the full story. Also since then I had been doing some reading up on mountain lions. And also since then I have had two rescued wimpy but wonderful greyhounds. One night while I was taking them out for their final nightly "run" up in the woods to do their business, they both stopped dead in their tracks. I had an enclosure put together up in the woods with several metal fence in a roll type deal and a gate with latest h that we installed. The dogs stopped dead and was staring up towards the back of the enclosure. I tool my spotlight and started looking around. About 50 feet on the other side of the fence in the back were red and green shining eyes. A tan head and chest. It moved sideways , turning it's body and it was without a doubt a mountain lion! Needless to say I yelled for the dogs to go to the house and we ran and went inside. It didn't seem to follow us. Thankfully. But my town is filled with wildlife , I've seen everything but moose in town. We all have to learn to coexhist. Ciao all! Is there a way to delete this thread?

The only motion sensor sprinkler that will spray the cats and not spray anything else is you holding a hose, sitting there on the porch keeping watch. I suppose a few communities might have a law about free roaming cats, but it is not common. You can call your local animal control officer and ask if there is such a law in your town. You can always set havahart traps on your own property and haul the loose cats off to the pound. Perhaps the owners will keep them inside after paying to bail kitty out of jail. More than likely, though, all they will do is to get another kitten when their cat doesn't come home. I've worked in an animal shelter and virtually no one ever came in to reclaim a lost cat. A very few had owners come for them. A few more got adopted, and a huge majority of them were put to sleep because nobody wanted them.

There are some birds that lay their eggs in another birds nest. The Cuckoo, Cowbird, Whyda, Honeyguide and Black-headed Duck come to mind. "These birds, called brood parasites, lay their eggs in another bird's nest and let the other bird parents feed and raise their chicks. The "egg abandoner" is then free to mate again and lay more eggs in another nest. The cuckoo is the best known brood parasite and an expert in the art of cruel deception. Its strategy involves stealth, surprise and speed. The mother removes one egg laid by the host mother, lays her own and flies off with the host egg in her bill. The whole process takes barely ten seconds. Cuckoos parasitize the nests of a large variety of bird species and carefully mimic the colour and pattern of their own eggs to match that of their hosts. Each female cuckoo specializes on one particular host species. How the cuckoo manages to lay eggs to imitate each host's eggs so accurately is one of nature's main mysteries."