I used to have bird feeders, but not since we have had an active population of black bears. While I like having them around, I don't want to train them to think that our house = food. Although the bears hibernate, they are awake before there are many food sources for seed eaters, and I hate to habituate the birds to my feeders and then have to remove them in early spring. I do want to put out a heated bird bath for winter, though, and may try a suet feeder since about the time I would have to bring in the feeder due to the bears waking up, there would be insects available for the suet eaters. We do have a lot of birds, but they don't spend as much time near the house as they would if we had feeders. I do plant for the birds and often have nests in shrubs near the house, seed eating birds on plants where I've let the seed heads stand, and insect eaters in the shrubbery. Purple martins eat flying bugs, so that is one of the reasons folks put up houses for them. Since you plan to put up bird houses, read up about the requirements for a house that the birds will use, the preferred size openings for different birds, and how best to site them since different types of birds look for different set-ups. Here's some general information on bird houses from the National Wildlife Federation: http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Gardening-Tips/Attracting-Nesting-Birds.aspx The link below is from Cornell University Lab of Ornithology's Project Nest Watch. If you go to the LEARN tab in the upper right part of the page, there are various articles about bird houses and landscaping for bird habitat that you may find useful. Until you have more shrubs or small trees near your feeders for landing spots, you can put a lage tree branch or old Christmas tree in a pot and fill the pot with rocks or gravel to hold it in place. Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell's Project Nest Watch

Hey Penny, I'm not in SE PA either, and don't want to hijack this thread, but did you take a look at the graph I linked to under my Ruby-throat migration--timing Post? It shows numbers of hummingbirds banded daily at Powdermill Banding station over a span of decades. What's interesting to me, is that although the very first hummingbird sightings in that area are in early to mid April, (according to the hummingbird migration map of first sightings) they don't really start catching them in the nets until early May. The peak in captures doesn't occur until mid May. This shows me that the numbers of hummers are so low at the time of first sightings, that there just aren't enough to be caught in the banding nets. About 4 weeks later, numbers start to increase enough that they start getting their first captures. It isn't until mid May that numbers really start to peak. I know you're a little behind Powdermill with your migration, but I think the principle still applies. It looks to me as though really decent numbers of hummingbirds may not build up until a full month after the initial sightings. That's why a lucky few people see them so early, but most of us in the northeast may have to wait until mid May, or even later for our first.

All of my feeders are hanging under the branches of shade trees out of the sun, since light and warmth will encourage bacteria and/or mold in any feeder, regardless of whether it's plastic or glass. Rainwater helps that along, so the downward-pointing tubes you're using keep the nectar cleaner than any other type, but aren't practical if the hummingbirds consume a gallon of sugar-water a day. In the past fifteen years, two or three 8 - 16oz feeders were plenty and uneaten nectar had to be dumped every third day or so. But I started planting more flowers last year and got the first breeding pair to take up residence. This year, with even more flowering plants, there was an unexpected population explosion. Now there are twelve feeders in the yard of seven different types/ brands and they all get used, though five are hung under what's become The Hummingbird Tree because of the crowd that prefers to feed there. They're using both rings on the Best-1 as perches:

Dorothy, When I have big bites out of tomatoes that low to the ground, it often st turtles. The turtles we have here love tomatoes and will stand on their hind legs with their back feet on the ground and will eat tomatoes as high up as they can reach, and we have some huge turtles with shells about as big as a dinner plate, so they can reach surprisingly high into the plants. They use the tomato cage or the plant itself to brace themselves against as they eat the toamto. It also might be possums. At my house, it also could be Duke, our rottweiler-mix who loves tomatoes, whether green or red. I've only had deer close enough to the house to eat the hollyhocks in the front porch flower bed once this year, but they are coming closer every day. I've been putting out deer corn for the nursing moms and the ones with young fawns the last couple of weeks, but I put that pretty far from the house. I know the deer are getting desperate because they are letting themselves be seen in the side yard between the woods and the house even in the middle of the day. I have to watch carefully if I go into the side yard on the north side of the house during the day or I find myself too uncomfortably close to deer. You know they are hungry, too, because instead of looking at me, freezing, and then turning and running, they look at me, stomp their feet and snort air out their nostrils, which I interpret as them telling me to "go away" (and I do back away and go back inside). I don't know what they are trying to eat on the north side of the house. All I have there is southern wax myrtle, purple wintercreeper, wisteria and Virginia creeper. My apple-growing neighbor who lives about 1/2 mile from us as the crow flies and is right on the river so has abundant deer keeps them away from his apple trees by putting a radio in the tree and playing it at night. The deer won't touch those apple trees when the radio is on, but they'll wipe out the garden that is a few feet away. He puts it in a ziplock bag to keep the moisture out. Susan, That's too bad about the sunflowers. When my sunflowers topple over in storms, as long as enough of the root is in the ground, I leave them there. They look awful, but the blooms still are useful to the wildlife. We've had one blooming about 2 weeks now, and now a second one is blooming. Not many even sprouted this year and most of them were eaten, likely by deer, before they had a chance to get very big. That's great that your plant started blooming after the rain. Sometimes it is amazing how much even a little rain helps. We had more rainfall overnight, so our 2-day rain total now is 0.20". Pathetic, but better than 0.0". Dawn