Two nights ago, I was naming all the iris pictures I took last summer and then downloading from my computer and into the futurephoto. Spent 6 hours doing so... Here is a mini sampling of some of the irises I have in my yard. Some irises just to wet your visual appetite today. Iris, Neutron Iris, French Wine...this one clumps quickly but I love the dark dark purple petals. Iris, Olive Garden is a newer purchase. Iris, Wizard of Hope is an iris that has multi-colors in the petals of the flower. I like irises with multiple colors. Iris, Baby Blessed. Love the soft yellow of this iris. Iris, Grandma's Hat...had to give a division of this one last summer to my mom...cause she is a grandma. Iris, Pixie Pirate. Iris, Bedazzled. This clump really catches your eye from a distance when in bloom. Iris, April Ballet. Love the baby blue coloring. Iris, Jungle Gem. Love the multi colors in this iris. Iris, Little Episode. I like the light purple edge around the falls. Iris, Dunlin. Love the stich marks around the falls and standards. Iris, Incendiary. This is an eye catching iris in my flowerbed. Brenda

My last iris to bloom is the Japanese iris, Picotee Wonder. Each year it has one or two blooms. This year only one, but, it is well worth waiting for. It is planted on the south side of my house, over top of the cistern and gets lots of snow cover in the wintertime. I bought it in 2003 and it seems to like it there, although it is a slow increaser of fans for me. Brenda

Not surprised about your cam-we've not had one single IR cam work, and even our trusty Non-typical Cuddeback flash cam went beserk, altho I suspect animal tampering. The same day my cam broke, a neighbor's dog went beserk barking at dawn, so he turned it loose. Jeff said he and his two sons saw a "black panther" stick its head around the barn, give the dog one swipe across the face, then walk off into the woods without a backward glance. He said it had a "3 foot tail." I was nervous about our dogs, but he said the cat only attacked in self-defense and didn't kill the dog tho he had to 2 take it 2 the vet for stitches. I kept reminding myself that jaguars don't attack people last night while we were sleeping in our screen tent with front flap open when I kept hearing it (?) bawling in the woods behind our house. It happened 5-6 times over two hours time-each time all the dogs in neighborhood would go beserk. Luckily, none of our dogs are loose. I'm still waiting to get my cam back. Since most of the birds spooked and avoided the new chair blind, even tho it was hidden in the brush, I'm going to try out a new bird blind prototype invention idea this a.m. that should make me "invisible" and draw birds to me at the same time.

Thanks! When I took these photos, migration was in full swing and the leaves hadn't even started turning yet. Now most of the leaves are gone and the migrants are gone. Birdky members still report them, but mostly south and west of us, usually near large bodies of water. Of course, now the winter birds are returning..saw a large flock of Fox Sparrows on Narnia Ridge this morning