Hi, mboston. You have some pretty good birds, all right. Okay, so are you thinking the bird in the top picture is not a brown thrasher? I really can't see him well enough to tell, but the reason I'm curious is because most thrushes are not common yard birds at all. So if it is a one of the thrushes, it would really be a nice surprise. It could be a migrating veery, and that would be fun. They are brown, quite plain, but smaller and more compact than thrashers. All of our thrushes seem to be mostly passing through during migration. Wish I had one to show up here! Yes, that's a mourning dove, which is usually the more common one, by far. Nuthatches tend to run up and down the tree trunks, hanging on like little woodpeckers. They have a short tail and look somewhat stubbier than titmice, plus they don't have the crest. And they're not real common in most backyards. I would be ECSTATIC to have one show up here. I've only ever seen them two or three times. Titmice have the little pointed crest, and are so cute and sweet. A common but always adorable little bird. This is almost as good a time of year for many birds as the spring is. We should start seeing migrating goldfinches again soon, and who knows what! Congratulations on all your wildlife, on your fun photos, and on just knowing how special they all are!! Marcia

Thanks a lot islandbreeze! Ribbon palms are probably about as cold hardy as Chinese fan palms and I have gotten my Chinese fan palm through 3 winters with protection. They lose most of their foliage from the cold, but grow back in no time. When I saw a ribbon palm at home depot for only $15 at that size, I had to get it! Hopefully it will be reasonably cold hardy. They are really fast growing. Alocasias are just as easy to keep in my experience as colocasias and are a lot more rewarding since they get noticably bigger every year (My colocasias have kind of maxed out in height now). Thanks John! It's a ton of work to bring everything inside. I don't even want to think about it yet even though I will probably start taking things inside starting in another 2 weeks or so (I would wait longer, but it's impossible to take everything in at the very end of the season). Thanks for looking! -Alex

* How old is your nispero and how long did it take to fruit? Last week, I moved my Makok sapodilla to a 30 gallon pot from the 12 gallon pot it was in. I've had it for around 2.5 years and it has the most beautiful shape. I've never had to prune it and it is perfectly balanced all around. This year, I picked around 120 fruits so far and there is about ten more on the tree. The fruits have been ripening since early May without taking a break. The tree is healthy, drought tolerant, and seems very productive. Needless to say, I love my Makok! I don't know about other people's experiences with Makok, but my tree seems to flower almost continuously from May until September. Every time it has new growth, it flowers again and sets more fruit. The picture I posted is from back in April of this year. * Are you willing to sell some budwood from your Toledo and Bizcochelo seedlings? At this time, I'm not interested in selling budwood from either tree. However, I would be cool with sharing, free of charge, but we definitely have to coordinate the process to improve the chances of success. * Mango chino for trade? I am definitely interested, I've never had it and would like to try it. How did you get your mango chino? * I was fortunate to try Bizcochelo y Toledo this year and they were mediocre at best... I've never had a bizcochuelo here in the US, but I've had many Toledos from my father's tree in Miami and the mangos are kind of watery, definitely not anywhere as good as the ones from Santiago. My potted Toledo is better, but still not like the ones I eat when I visit Cuba. I hope that the fruits from my Bizcochuelo tree are as good as the ones from the mother tree, but even in Cuba, on rainy years, mangos are not as good as on normal years. My grandfather always says that mangos from really wet years are for pigs!

Aside from feeders and water, mixed plantings will attract a wide variety of birds. My lot has numerous canopy trees, understory vegetation and shrubs, some open areas, and some dense evergreens and thickets of things like Crabapples for cover and berries. And several gardens with a mix of many native perennials and grasses, and annuals that make seeds and harbor insects for the birds. As previous posters stated, attracting insects is important because 90% of terrestrial birds raise their young almost exclusively on insects, such as the larvae of moths and butterflies. The best way to nurture a healthy population of insects is to plant woody plants that are native to your region. Although most people don't think it looks tidy, and are usually compulsive about cleaning up dead wood, it's very attractive to all cavity nesters to leave a dead tree or two standing and even dead branches, if they are safely located and won't drop on the house or deck or anything. Birds also love to perch on dead lower branches in trees. My back yard is much more naturalized than the front and I've left about 10 or so dead pine tree snags standing back there, some of which are old enough to have multiple woodpecker holes. This year there are White-breasted Nuthatches and Eastern Bluebirds nesting in the dead snags that I've noticed so far! :)