Randy, Three batches of baby birds! Cool! Oddly, we haven't had any phoebes this year at all, which is not surprising, I guess, in a year when EVERYTHING has been odd. The rest of the bird population seems fairly normal, although we have more hummingbirds than usual and fewer bluebirds. We have had rufous hummingbirds in addition to the usual ruby-throated ones too. We often see rufous (and black-chinned hummers) during the migration only, but this year, the rufous have stuck around. Like you, we have a huge wasp population as well as tons of ants AND grasshoppers. I think this is the worst grasshopper year in 6 or 8 years. What's missing? No Colorado Potato Beetles (not that I'm complaining), no aphids, and spider mites only on the verbena bonariensis. TONS of brown stinkbugs and green stinkbugs, and they arrived in May instead of July. They're obviously my biggest garden problem. We're raising 17 keats (baby guineas) bought at the feed store to go with our three surviving males from our original batch of 24 almost a decade ago. Since keats generally don't hatch until late May or early June, these are still really small and we had to chase a 7' long snake out of the henhouse last night. Most years we lose all our keats to the darned snakes and I am determined not to let that happen this year. That's the bird and bug report here. Dawn

Thats so sad. Snakes, Racoons, Owl, Cat, even other birds. It may have been something that prowls at night since you have not seen anything. I have nest boxes and I can protect those birds to some extent but the open nesters are on their own. It is nature and it's not always pretty.

Thanks again everyone. A couple more quick stories and then I'll let this thread fade away.... One time we were watching t.v. and Duke was walking by the television when a Burger King commercial came on....at the end the screen was filled with the picture of a big hamburger..the timing was perfect...Duke walked by at that exact time and licked the screen! One time Duker was riding shotgun in my pickup truck and we were sitting at a stoplight. The 2 guys in the next lane (left turn lane) were looking at Duke and he was peeking around me smiling at them....you know...the lab smile..and they were laughing, obviously because Duke was so happy to be riding along his radiance just showed...then Duke looked over at them again and then licked the side of my face...one big wet dog kiss...and then looked over at them again as if to say 'I'm ridin' with my daddy!'.....well these two big guys were about on the floorboard howling with laughter...I think my half embarrassed look on my face elevated the hilarity level. Duker never knew to lift his leg to pee....he always squatted...well....again my buddy Mike was helping Duke lift his leg to demonstrate how male dogs should urinate. It worked! The problem was he was orchestrating this example in the middle of my living room! Thanks again folks. Appreciate the kind comments. Duane

This will be my last foster because I do get too attached. Buster isn't adopted yet as far as I know and is probably at Petsmart. When I checked on him last night at Superpetz, he was in a large crate in a quiet room in a snuggli sleeping. He had water, food, and litter. These were never feral kittens but were about two weeks away from becoming. Their mother had two kittens in the spring and son says these are identical to them except they are grown now and feral..Mother is semi feral and I took the kittens at four weeks. I've kept Henry in the powder room because I wasn't here today in the afternoon because of grandson's soccer tournament, but tomorrow I will open the door and let him wander around. I read at 14 weeks siblings start to get rough w/ each other and don't have the dependency they once had. These two were sometimes sleeping separately. I couldn't handle two kittens and in a week he'll forget he even had a brother. Besides he inherits six bossy "sisters" and an elderly brother who could care less.