Interesting about the kinds of seed everyone feeds. I feed primarily black oil sunflower 9expensive at Lowe's, but cheap at Tractor Supply - ($15 for 50 lbs). Black oil seems to be the preferred feed for cardinals, chickadees carolina wren, downy woodpecker, mourning dove, flickers, tufted titmouse,bluebirds, and an occasional jay. Sparrows feed on it, but prefer the hulled seed, as do the chickadees and wrens. An added bonus - the sunflower hull of the black oil seed seems to help the compost, and it mulches nicely in the flower beds! Used to get that weedy flower in GA, when I didn't use the sterile seed. You are also probably getting thistle seed in there. I feed probably 80 pounds of thistle in the winter, for the finches, primarily gold and red, with some buntings showing up in spring. If you feed thistle be very careful to get the sterile seed. its fertile and tends to fall below the feeder (doves and mice will eat it). I actually like the look of thistle, and the fact that it attracts bees, so my thistle feeders at the wood line all are not sterile. Come spring, I will get hundreds of thistle plants, that by summer will be beautiful purple flowers for the bees, and come late summer, natural seed for birds passing through. If you can tolerate the spiny leaves, and thistle 'fluff'(which bluebirds use all winter here for nesting), let it grow, it really is a pretty plant If you want to get rid of that 'smell' below the feeder, avoid seed with corn, when I fed a mix with corn, the corn would sometimes sit and ferment, or, as you discovered, grow. Corn here, whole or cracked, is an attractant of crows. I do throw cracked corn in the woodline to keep them away from the sunflower. Using cracked corn away from my garden, also keeps rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and racoons at bay! Crack corn doesnt seem to grow into stalks either. It does, however seem to cause my grass to die, so I keep it in areas that I don't have plantings.

The birds in the movie are Wood Ducks: they are *supposed* to jump from their nest holes in the forest and land in the leaves. The birds you have may be falling out or being *kicked* out for various reasons: 1). A Brown-headed Cowbird may have laid an egg in that nest and the *much* larger baby is booting out the smaller ones which belong to the host species. Brown-headed Cowbirds are 'nest parasites' and never build their own nests, but instead will parasitize the nests of everything from finches to bluebirds. 2). Occasionally, a parent bird's inexperience leads it to build a rather flimsy nest and the babies fall out too soon. 2)b).When it's time for a fledgling to leave the nest, however, it may plop down on the ground and find a low bush in which to hide while its parents teach them the fine arts of foraging and flying, all the while continuing to feed until such time as the baby is flying well. 3). Some predator might be knocking them out of the nest prematurely. 4). Some other *bird* might be knocking the babies out in order to usurp control of the nest. Look for House Sparrows and European Starlings, which seem to be the bigger culprits, but occasionally, Violet-Green Swallows will engage in this behavior as well. A way to circumvent #'s 3 & 4 is to provide extra nesting boxes spaced far enough apart so as to not encourage encroachment on the others' territories. In the case of the swallows, they are partial colony nesters (Violet-greens), but will also build several 'dummy' nests to ward off competitors (which is also the case with House Wrens). Trying to stop the nest parasitizm as seen in Brown-headed Cowbirds is detrimental all the way around. It would be helpful to know which species of birds you are personally dealing with. . .

Thanks Lynn, I will definitely look for this remote light switch. Jaybird, I had been wanting to do something like this for years, but I didn't know where to find a plain ladder. There is a gift store about 6 miles south of us and my husband and I went in there one day. They had ladders!!! We paid $9.99 (plus tax) for it. Most of what is on my ladder are things I've had for years. There is a little glass candle holder that I put some candy corn in on the top rung. Those apples are candles, but I would never light them. So is the red cannister on the 3rd rung. They are there for display only. I don't care for the little scarecrow sitting on the second rung...his legs are jute. They need to be covered somehow, I just don't know how. There is a large spider I made using one section of an egg carton for the body and pipe cleaners for the legs. He's 2/3 of the way down hanging onto the fall leaves. The jackolantern flashes with different colors when turned on. I had fun making this, and I'm looking forward to changing it again for Christams.

Shee...love what's taking place. I like the second arrangement much better w/flowers in center and lamps on either end. I agree, bring the large gourd over a bit, next to the lamp...You could actually form a 'triangle' grouping, out of the three things you have there. > Using the large Gourd, the metal container and the small pumpkin...Rather than setting your trio of accessories out in a row, imagine a triangle and place one object at each point. Scale is important, too, so in your group of three be sure to vary items by height and width, with the largest at the back and the smallest in front. Everything looks very nice... I like your Grandma's florals that she gave you..very nice.