My monarda is just now getting buds. It's really spread, so I think it should be spectacular this year. But it's the magenta kind; the red one is way in the back of the yard, and the trees have gotten so big that there is too much shade. I doubt I'll have much bloom from the red this year. And they are so pretty.
We always have a hummingbird feeder, sometimes two. Last year we had a nest, way up high. Never could see it, or figure out how my husband saw it, they're so incredibly tiny, like a thimble!
Oh my gosh that is right.... I forgot about your expert. Maybe it's just because they both like to hang out on the ground.... the Flickers and Thrashers that is. And speaking of the ground, one day when I was driving up the lane (I say lane because it's more like a wide horse path than a road), a mama quail was marching all her little fledglings across the road. They were all so adorable with their little top feathers nodding as they walked.... all in a row too. :)
We have many because we live on the edge of a forest and have three state park/forests around us. I can't even identify them all. But I'm trying little by little. At night we have bats, Barred and Great-Horned Owls though not as many since the damn West Nile. Oh there are Whipporwills too at night. My DH built a bat house and hoisted it high in the tree for them. They are so great for the garden. Redwings like to hang around near water and there is a big pond on the other side of the road. My DH is very tall and they like to dive-bomb him. Some type of fly-catcher is now nesting in our garage (and it is getting far too warm for that. Usually, we only have the Carolina wrens out there. It's not a Phoebe because it looks different and they like to nest under the eaves of our front porch. Two years past, a rat snake got the babies and mama Phoebe cried horribly for two days. I never knew that rat snakes could climb a wall like that or that a mother bird would mourn like that for so long. Her cries were so pitiful as she searched in vain for them. Now we provide protection if they nest on the porch. I've not seen any Cowbirds this year so the Bluebirds are abundant.
Oh how fortunate you were to have Pileateds come so close. And yeah they are so big! It always makes the day when we see one.
Last year, we had to hang three feeders there were so many hummers. If they ran out of nectar, they would look in the window! This year we have only a few. I hope they are not all sick. :(
I had to string a line across the deck to hang two of the hummer feeders. It was very dry here last year. When one of them wasn't guarding the feeders (which is so funny!), 5 or 6 of them would rest upon the line, all spaced out from each other. They never sit close like Waxwings, except at the feeder. And one day it started to rain and they all looked up and opened their long beaks!! Another day, two of them got in a fight... OK they are always fighting... and one got knocked down on the deck. Outside at the time, I just stood there frozen in horror, wondering if I should get the birdie shoe-box hospital that we use when one occasionally flies into a screen and knocks himself out. But just as I was wondering, she got up and flew off as though nothing had happened.
Aaaack!!! I would *not* be a happy camper if I had evidence of wild critters *in* the house. I remember vividly, my mother trying frantically to herd wild birds out of the house. We didn't have screens, and they flew in through the open windows in the summer. Raccoons would do me in...
Difference between the Reno area and The Willamette valley: we have difficulty getting things *not* to grow. ;-}
I keep three feeders rotating all the time, in addition to five fuchsia baskets and two mixed annual baskets on the deck. I get as much pleasure from watching the hummers as they (apparently) get from the feeders.
I love those mini-roses, too. I have mostly red ones, but I'll take whatever is available. Right now, my favorite one is covered with mildew, the result of a *very* damp spring here.
When I lived in Miami (Coconut Grove) I had a possum who came every night for some cat food. She came in the cat door, and the cats all stood waaaay back and let her help herself. She would sometimes stop and look at me (in the next room) as if to say hello, although I am sure she was trying to determine if I was going to be a problem. LOL!
When I was a kid, we had a cat who adored my mother, and brought her "presents" all carefully kept alive so that they had some play left in them for her. Guess whose task it was to remove them from the premises? As my mother stood on a chair.....
I have lived in such places. It's a stark contrast here. Things grow well enough if you can get water to them, but it's also a much shorter growing season than in south Florida or even California.
I would like to have some fuschia if I can just find a place where it doesn't get cooked by the sun.
You can cut them way down, and they will come back. I don't know what you can do once the mildew has taken hold, other than to remove any affected part. Fortunately, those little roses are a "Best Buy." They're 3 for $9.99 right now, in lovely clay pots, even. Except that I seem to already have an abundance of lovely clay pots......
Once in a great while, I get a Steller's jay. I guess it gets caught on a Washoe Zephyr and is blown down from the mountains. I really enjoy the brief visit, though. Stunning birds.
Last time I visited my cousin in Orlando, while I was sitting on their screen porch with the geckos, a bluebird and a cardinal came to the birdbath. Wow!
They are vicious little beasties! They remind me of short men. They're overcompensating for size. A friend had a regular one she called Atilla the Hum.
I have quail who feed on the ground, under my feeder. They are so cute and funny, I love to watch them. I'm hoping that they have quaillings (or whatever they're called) where I can see them sometime - except that I don't want the neighbors' cats going after them. Someone described them to me as "cotton balls with legs and a beak."
Sometimes the quail get on the porch roof and run back and forth. It sounds like an army up there, but is usually only one or two quail!
InspirePoint website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.