The *happiest* of birthdays to you Bonnie!

Hope all is well with you and your family! :-)

Camp Nappy

Happy birthday Bonnie!

And here's your cake! With smiley little fishies, just perfect. Whipped cream frosting etc etc. I hope you like it!

:) Mary

{{gwi:167049}}

Ohhhhh you ladies are so sweet! Thanks so much for thinking of me. My Birthday is really on January 30th but i will gladly take this as a belated B-day! :-) Im 34yrs old this year. We bought a new house and moved on my birthday and it was VERY hectic!!! LOL...Not much fun and it was cold and rainy. I would very much like my birthday to be NOW. LOL...So pretty and warm and things are blooming and the little birdies are all making babies and such a wonderful time of the year...So thank you for letting me have a pretty birthday for a change :)
Mary thank you so much for the lovely cake. I love fish!! Thats what i asked for on my 18th B-day was a big fish tank with fishies. I got it to because the parents were glad i didnt ask for a car! LOL...Perfect cake for me.
Dearest Brenda! What have you been up too? Have you been buying some wonderful plants? I now have 5 acres to fill up! My family is scared. Heehee. Well i look at it like we have a duty to help make the world a beautiful flower place, right? I just don't understand why they don't see that. I know you understand, flower buddy :-)
Sorry i have been gone so long but i felt like i was a little out of place because im not good with the computer and i cant add pictures. So i felt kinda useless and in the way of everybody's fun and stuff. Everybody seemed so much more advanced than me computer wise. Great people over here tho. Really good hearted and fun and caring. If you don't mind my computer illiteracy over here, i would love to stop by often? :-) Thank you so much!
Bonnie

DOH! Sorry I missed your "real" b-day, Bonnie! LOL Wow, you've been busy! Five acres....I'm so jealous! You'll have to describe all of your plantings, because we don't care if you can't post pics or you don't know computer stuff!!! Seriously, I love your stories and appreciate having you here in the forum. :)

Oh, yes....I've been buying plants (is the Pope Catholic? LOL). And starting them from seed and getting seedlings from Mom and trying cuttings...I don't think the madness will ever end here. :D

Brenda

Hey BBE, happy REALLY belayed birthday! Nice to 'see' you again! Sarah

Bonnie, I do understand how intimidating this forum can sometimes be with threads that have techno-babble titles such as "chu" or "ju".... but don't worry and hang in there and one day very soon ju can be one of them. Notice I'm not including myself in that group because I am still very much 'puter illegitimate. :-)

ps: Happy belated birthday.

pss: 5 acres eh? That WILL be our next and hopefully last house. Longgggggggg driveway, my own giant woodworking workshop, not being able to see any of our neighbors, maybe a small mountain bike trail, a dedicated home theater, and a new pond project. Can't wait!

Thank you so much semper and Sarah :-) You all are always so nice over here. Semper i know you are NOT "puter illiterate!" ROFL I have seen you do some fantastic stuff on the "puter" LOL....I havent been gone that long :-)

The problem with the new 5 acres is a very large natural pond that is shallow. So im scared to put fish in it because we have had a drought and it might dry up. BUT the mosquitoes have literally just about carried us away. The big pond has woods all around it so i don't know how to get a digger in there to make the pond deeper so it wont dry up. I tried a lot of the mosquito dunks that are supposed to be larvicide but i think they ate it and grew bigger. They must have mislabeled the miracle grow and called it mosquito dunks. Out of the five acres four is probably wooded with lots of very mean thorny vines my mother calls saw briers. So we have a lot of work to do before it gets better. We call it our jungle :-) We have lots of deer and rabbits (Brenda im scared for my plants!). We had a huge turtle or tortoise cross the road today and it was huge! Must have been very old. Lots and lots of birds and vultures and hawks. And something that gurgles like a gator at night in the pond. I am not wadding in there to dig it deeper because i don't know whats in there! Any suggestions on what to do about the mosquitoes? Its only April. We may not have any blood left by the end of summer. We love our jungle anyway and kinda wanted it as a nature preserve. There is another 8 acres next to us and we are hoping to get that in the future. Lots and lots of frogs too and we had some wood ducks come for a visit but didnt stay. Probably a good thing since i saw a Great horned owl at dusk the other night. We also had a huge Great blue heron come and eat a very large frog from the pond that we didnt even know was in there. My mother says we also have duck weed growing in the pond. Its little round green disks. So it has been very exciting here in the country for this city girl! I got some pictures of the Heron and woodducks but in stupid and cant post them! LOL...

Semper i read Over the Rainbow but i couldn't respond because i was sobbing to much. It was beautiful. Im so sorry for your loss of a great friend.
Bonnie

Wow, Bonnie, it's a jungle out there! :D It sounds great, except for those mosquitos. Ack! When I first started my pond, I got a bucket o' mosquito fish free from the local vector control district. Try checking in the county section of the phone book. Five plus years later, there are still fish in my pond, doing their yobs. :)

The turtle, and birds, and frogs (oh, MY!) sound awesome!! The deer and rabbits...not so much. We don't have those here, but I do have pocket gophers. Not fun.

To attach a photo, you need to sign up for a free account at an image hosting site (i.e, Photobucket.com), then upload your pictures from your computer to your album there. Don't worry; it's not very difficult, and the site explains everything along the way. To embed them within a post, you would need to copy and paste the TAG line, which will be under your image on Photobucket, into the message box here at GW. Or you can just copy and paste the URL line from Photobucket into the "Optional Link URL" box at the bottom of the "Post a Follow-Up" area here at GW.

Hope that helps! :) If you need any more help, like with copying and pasting (not sure just how much you don't know...:D), just say the word.

Brenda

Brenda would i need to feed the fish or they just eat the bugs and mosquitoes? Even during the bad drought last year there was still a small pool about 4-5 ft wide that had not dried up. Would that be enough to keep the little fishes alive? I would hate to put them in there and kill them :-( The pond is about 100ft wide now and it circles across the back to form like a horse shoe shape and a smaller pond about 50ft wide on the other side dried up during the drought. We have been blessed with good rain so far this year so we really have a beautiful wet land area in back of the house now. With this being our first few months here im not sure what changes the land and pond area really go through. I would probably need some kind of fish that would stay small. I would love to make it deeper tho but i don't want to hurt any trees. If it gets low again this year i would be able to dig in it myself but would that mess up the natural ecosystem in it? I don't want to cause any harm to it. Many big and little creatures are using it but the mosquitoes are bad for all of us including the animals and birds. I have only seen one little bat. I have a bat house but there is so much shade from the trees i don't think i could get a colony going. They need to be warm. I love bats tho they are awesome mosquito control and they are really cute with their little wrinkled up noses :-)
Also i am to stupid to use Photobucket because i already made an account and i don't know how to copy and paste anything so i cant get my pictures uploaded and their tutorials make no sense to me. So how do you copy and paste something? It sounds really easy but im to stupid :-(
They didnt teach us anything about computers in school. We just played Oregon trail or something like that on the computers back then. The only way i can show the pictures is by sending you an invitation through email to view the gallery. I did get a new computer and digital camera so that i could post pics on the forums BUT i didnt realize how hard it would be. It sounds really simple but its not :-( At least for me anyway. So now that i have written this book i better post it before i delete it or something! LOL....
Bonnie

Bonnie, I've never had to feed my mosquito fish in all the years I've had them. They're small fish. My pond isn't very big, maybe 5 ft. long, 3 ft. wide, maximum, but it's about 3-3 1/2 feet deep, maybe more. It's not in full sun and is 90% covered in plants, so it stays very cool, even in summer. :) That would be my only concern with yours, if it gets really hot in full sun. Once it dries up to that size, though, mosquito dunks would be sufficient.

I love bats, too, by the way. :)

I'm currently on Mom's computer, so I'll try to post more about copying/pasting/etc. when I get home tomorrow or on Monday. I thought MY dial-up was slow! I feel like I'm surfing in quicksand here! LOL

Brenda

Thank you Brenda. The pond wetland area is pretty much full shade because of all the trees. The house is on a slight slope so all the water drains to the back where it has created this wetland area and natural pond. Im thinking the deepest part is about 3ft deep and it didnt dry up in the drought. The majority of the standing water is about 6 inches deep. I need to get my hubby a pair of waders so he can go out and see for sure how deep the area is. The reason the area is so big is because im thinking the majority of it is shallow water. Perfect for hungry little skeeters and nice shade from the trees. We didnt know the water would get that big when we bought it because he just showed us the pond area which was small because of the drought. Now we know and it is beautiful but im not sure how to handle all the mosquitoes. So we found paradise but we are scared to go outside! LOL.... Im having planting withdrawals. LOL...We are almost done with the plants i brought from the other house. It was in the sales contract that i could have all my plants. So we have been planting since February. I also just ordered another huge bunch from my cheap online planting place and am waiting for that to arrive. Since we have all this water i ordered a lot of weeping willows and pussy willows and dappled willows. Also red twig dogwoods and mountain ash trees. Red buds and a weeping cherry tree. One dawn redwood tree and some stag-horn sumac's. Weigelas and rose of sharons and hibiscus. Some Bridal white spireas day lilies and some roses. So i have a mess of plants coming but they are usually really little but if you take great care with them they grow good. Then i have gone crazy with wildflower seeds everywhere so i don't know how that will turn out but it was fun doing it anyway. LOL...So the new house with all this room is a lot of fun. Im not a good designer tho so i know it wont look professional but im in the country so i guess it wont matter much. I just like lots of color so who knows! :-)
Bonnie

What fun Bonnie! I would sure toss some mosquito dunks in your wetlands now, decide about fish later.

Oh, Bonnie, the plants you can grow make me drool! Especially in that wetland area! LOVE willows and those staghorn sumacs...and everything else you listed, really!

Yes, I'd definitely load up on mosquito dunks right now and get them in that "puddle". Mosquitos are really bad here now, too. Then I read an article the other day about a woman who has recovered from West Nile Virus, but the resulting polio-like syndrome pretty much left one of her legs paralyzed for life. She was extremely active before contracting WNV, too. I'm VERY paranoid about mosquitos right now!!! *shudder*

Ok, now the fun part. LOL You'll log in to Photobucket, and it takes you to a page where you'll see "Click here to start uploading." So, click on "Choose files."

A window ("Select file(s) to upload by suchandsuch.photobucket.com") will pop up which will show some files on your computer. The trick is knowing where your photos are located on your computer. Next to the box on the top of that window, you'll see "Look in:" then the image, or icon, of a little open folder and the name of that folder, i.e., "My Documents." In the larger area below all of that, you'll see any folders or files within that folder. To the right of that folder name (i.e., "My Documents") is a little arrow pointing down. If you click on that, you'll see a list of named places and folders on your computer, i.e., "Desktop", "Local Disk (C:)", etc.

What you need to do is find out where your photos are on your computer, and then we can navigate to that area in that little window that popped up. If they're on your Desktop (what you see when your computer is just sitting there, usually just after you start it up), then you'll see the folder or the names of the photos under "Desktop" in that list.

So, before I go any further, let's find your photos on your computer. Please let me know if you need help with that!

Brenda

I'm sorry for the scary post above, Bonnie! I didn't mean to frighten you off! LOL No worries on the pics, really. I'd rather just have you back posting "normal" stuff. :)

Brenda

I have a secret. I know where she is but I'm not telling. I'll just say she is busy. Just keep watching for her. Glenda

I'm watching, I'm watching!! *strapped in and eating popcorn*

Brenda

Well, actually I've changed my mind.. It's just too good a secret to keep. I found her over on the bird watching forum, seems like someone had been teaching her how to post pictures. She posted some beautiful pictures of Pileated Woodpeckers. So maybe she will be back over here showing us some of her property and it's surroundings soon. Glenda

Ha! I knew it was too good to be true! You can't have a pond that's 'too' clean AND keep all your secrets!
(big grin...sorry Glenda, just kidding!)

Glad BBE is still flitting around.

Sarah

I just checked out her post! Woohoo!! Can't wait until she starts posting pics of her new property here, too.

Thanks for not keeping your secret, Glenda. LOL

Brenda

Here is a link that might be useful: Bonnie's post

Here is a pic of a wildbush man i found frolicking around the nature pond out in my jungle.
{{gwi:167050}}
Here is another pic of the pond area with a male wood duck.
{{gwi:167051}}
Here is another pic of pond area.
{{gwi:167052}}
Hope this works!
Bonnie

Im really trying to learn this because i want to share with you all so much. Im very embarrassed because i was practising at the Birding forum and i got my pics sideways!!!!!!!! LOL... At least i learned now how to do it better. I have had a little angel helping me and lets say they are a very patient teacher ;-)
Bonnie

OY! Dearest Bonnie ....

Those are lovely photographs! Thanks sooooo much for sharing them with us!

C3D :-)

Hope all is well with you and yours!

Bonnie, Don't be embarrased. We all goof at one time or another. That just makes life interesting. There is someone over on the birding forum asking you some questions. Please go back over there and check with her. Someone that thought you were afraid of trees. LOL By the way beautiful pictures. And hubby and I have decided that that noise you are hearing is definately a Big Ole Bull Frog. Lot less dangerous than an alligator. LOL Glenda

Bonnie... Some one told me of a good remedy to keep mosquitos off yourself and other humans. Go to the Dollar General Store and buy yourself a big bottlle of Dollar General brand mouthwash. Be sure to get the regular orange one not the mint flavored one. Put it into a spray bottle and before going outside spray it on yourself. It will keep mosquitos away from you. I haven't tried it yet, but if it works, should be safe and in-expensive. Of course you'll still have mosquitos, but it will make it more comfortable and healthier for you humans. Love your mountain man in the woods picture. Glenda

Thank you Chickadee! Sorry the pics arent that great but now that some sweetie has taught me how to post pics i will try and take some better ones.

Hi Glenda! I know about that person on the birding forum but i just dont talk with them anymore. They know that i had toxic neighbors at my other house and they should not be shocked that i moved. I could not take the neighbors anymore so this property was available with a new house and plenty of space so neighbors would never be that close again. Yes i am scared of trees falling on me and my family and our house but i have to get over that. Trees are lovely and great for wildlife and birds and i love wildlife and birds so i now live with a lot of trees. Sorry they seem so perturbed about it that i moved but i dont have to explain myself to them at all. We are not close anymore and have not been for quite a few months. They know that. I dont know why they posted that but if that makes them happy then they are free to do so. I dont have to explain myself or my trees to them. LOL....I love small trees but big trees do freak me out but i did not move here to kill big trees because im scared of them so the trees stay. It would be very selfish to wipe out acres of large trees just because they scare me. I really dont understand why they chose to bring that up in such a public way anyway. It had nothing to do with the birds i was trying to show in the pictures. Here is another picture of the natural pond.

{{gwi:167053}}

Here is a picture from the side of the house and you can see the pond past the fence.

{{gwi:167054}}

Here are some of my spooky trees! LOL...
{{gwi:167055}}

This is my pretty girl Mary.
{{gwi:167056}}

This is my pretty baby Mr Tigger.
{{gwi:167058}}

This is my froggie that eats bugs on the back door, what kind is it?
{{gwi:167060}}
{{gwi:167062}}
Bonnie

Here is Mr. Woodduck and the Mrs.
{{gwi:167064}}

Here is a not so good pic of a Great blue Heron.
{{gwi:167065}}

Here is another picture of my Mary and Tigger
{{gwi:167066}}
{{gwi:167067}}

A birdie banquet.
{{gwi:167068}}
Bonnie

Bonnie, Sorry, sometimes I just stick my nose where it doesn't belong. I just love your paradise. Trees, pond and all. You will have so much fun and enjoyment there you won't even be afraid of the trees anymore. I love your dogs, they are so adorable. I would just love to hug them. I miss my dog so much. Hubby say's no more for awhile though. I don't know what kind of frog that is, but she sure is cute. Hope the sight will help you. I thought it was interesting and it helped me id one of mine

http://www.nwf.org/frogwatchUSA/frogs_state.cfm?showstate=fl#frogs

Bonnie, those are GREAT pics!!! What a wonderful property you have! I have a wildbush man, too. Do you think they're invasive? :D

I LOVE your little darlings!! Cuddles and BIG kisses for both!! What do they think of the new digs?

I'm scared to death of falling trees, too, Bonnie. We had one destroy a vehicle, and another fall on the roof of our rental home here. The landlord still hasn't done anything about them, so every wind storm, I cower on the opposite end of the house. But as scared as I am of trees, I don't think I could EVER live in a home without trees around it. Call me crazy. Go ahead. LOL Anyway, glad you're ignoring that idiot over there on the other forum.

Thanks for sharing your pics, Bonnie!!! You did good! Oooo, those birdies look like confetti!

Crazy Brenda

Glenda don't you apologize at all. Its not your fault that person cant let go of things.
I found out if i hit enter (Thank you Chickadee) it drops the next picture to another line just like in a paragraph. Don't know why i didnt do that at first but after what i saw happen i realized i needed to do that! LOL...Im so sorry for the loss of your doggie :-( Last year my Mary got a stomach flu or something and she vomited all day and all i could think about was what if i lost her. It was a Sunday and i wanted to take her to the doggie emergency room but hubby told me to wait a little and see what happens because there were no other symptoms just the vomiting. So i keep a close eye on her and later that night she got fine but i really freaked out because usually dogs are so stoic and i had never seem her sick before. They just have my heart. I hope your hubby lets you get a new pup soon. I think it helps the grieving process too.
I think my little froggie is a tree frog and it comes every night to eat the bugs drawn to the light. Not scared of us at all! LOL...Its about the size of a quarter. Its cute isnt it!

LOL...Brenda i hope they aren't invasive. I have enough trouble controlling that one. I think their territorial tho so i havent seen any others out there :-) Mary and Tigger say thanks for the kisses and send some back to ya. When we first moved here they were scared to death and Mary slept under my bed for a week but they got ok now. They patrol the yard for anything that moves and i have had to muzzle Tigger when he goes out now because he killed a male Robin and a Goldfinch :-( I was not happy because we do not eat the neighbors. Mary doesn't do that she just runs after stuff which is ok, eating them is not. He was sad at first but now he is fine with it. Its the basket kind that he can open his mouth and drink also. Not the kind that keeps their mouth closed.
Glad someone else is scared of trees. Thought i had committed a crime or something because big trees scare me! LOL...I am not calm at all when the wind is up and we have had several big limbs come down already and i thought they were fine and not sick. The weather man has said that the drought has damaged a lot of the trees and you just cant see it from the outside of the tree. So i cower in the corner too when big storms come through. I have some trees down right now i could get pics of and show you. BUT the world needs trees for oxygen and wildlife need trees for homes and birds love trees so like you i would not hurt them but they do freak me out! LOL....Thanks you two for the kind words and helping me learn stuff ;-)
Bonnie

Bonnie, what fun you must be having in your new home - all that room to play with! Can't wait to see all your new plantings too. Great photos, and I love your pups too!

I would LOVE to have a natural pond like yours. I can imagine hosta, columbine, bleeding heart, ferns...around the edges, at least here in Minnesota :) 'Course you've gots lots of new projects, you can always just let the pond be for a year to see what happens naturally...lol, getting ahead of myself, planning your pond when I can't even get my own done! Ahhhhh, we can always dream!

PS: The bird buffet shot is wonderful!

Sarah

Hey this is my mom who they said only had two months to live. That was three years ago! She decided yesterday to hop on the mower and just took off after the grass! LOL...She had never been on a riding lawnmower but just "decided" she wanted too. I think she's awesome. Anyway i wanted to show you the tree that just came down a few days ago and almost got the fence! Look just past mom and you will see a snapped tree and all the branches and leaves just outside the fence on the ground. Glad it didnt hit the house!
{{gwi:167069}}
Bonnie

Bonnie, She looks right at home there on the mower. I'm glad she has defied the odds. You are doing a good job taking care of her. Do you have a fireplace so you can use the firewood next winter? Glad it wasn't too close to the house. Glenda

Hey there Miss Bonnie. Your Mom looks wonderful! :-)

So glad she didn't listen to the flunky doctors because she obvioulsy knows what's best! Now she does the lawn too. LOL!

Your pictures are great! Thanks for sharing.

C3D

Hey, Ma's gittin' 'er done! LOL Wow, amazing story, too! It looks like she's saying, "Trees?! I don't care about any stinkin' trees!" *VROOOM*

She sounds awesome!

Brenda

Ride on Mama! What a remarkable woman!

And wood ducks! Oh how lucky, do you think they will stay and nest? And red-headed woodpeckers, we don't get them here - I would love to see one someday!

Enjoy your new home, it looks fantastic (including the scary trees!)

Thank you so much Glenda, Chicka, Brenda, and Jean! Sorry i have been gone so long but my son has had a VERY BUSY WEEK at school and i havent been on the computer at all, even to check my email! We had a walk-a-thon , B-B-Q, bake sale ,graduation ceremony and award day, trip to Lake Winnie an amusement park then this weekend was my grandpa's 100th birthday celebration. So please forgive me for not getting back sooner to thank you all for your sweet comments on my mom. I just read them to her and i could tell she was touched deeply. You all are so kind and uplifting. She is the strongest person i know and i just wanted to share her a little bit with you.

I wish the wood ducks would have stayed but they were only here for a couple of days but i was definitely looking at wood duck houses and set ups on the computer! LOL...I had to read up on them too because i didnt even know about wood ducks and had never even seen them before. Maybe they will come back next year and i will be ready for them. I got some really bad pics of our resident Red headed woodpeckers and i will post them on here in a little bit. They are very pretty but the other birds do not seem to like them much at all. They set up a fuss when the red heads come around tho. Glenda i sure wish i did have a fire place because we have a lot of big branches and trees down a lot but i don't. Maybe the neighbors might want it. I will have to call around and ask. That's a good idea tho.Bonnie

I have a few pics i would like to share. Some birdie and some buggie.

Red headed woody
{{gwi:167070}}
{{gwi:167071}}
{{gwi:167072}}

Pileated? woody
{{gwi:167073}}
{{gwi:167074}}
{{gwi:167075}}

What kinda Dragonfly? is this?
{{gwi:167076}}
{{gwi:167077}}
{{gwi:167078}}

Thanks Bonnie

Mr. and Mrs. Rose breasted Grosbeak.
{{gwi:167079}}

Red bellied woody and Mr. Grosbeak having a word.
{{gwi:167080}}

Male "purple finches" I think they are pink.
{{gwi:167081}}

Male Hairy woody and Male Downy woody. Look at size difference.
{{gwi:167082}}

My little rose garden.
{{gwi:167083}}
One of my babies i grew from seed.
{{gwi:167085}}
One of my favorite iris.
{{gwi:167087}}

Last but not least a bad pic of my sweetheart Herman. He/she is my baby.
{{gwi:167089}}

Hope i didnt overload everybody! LOL....
Bonnie

Bonnie, I only had time today to look at the pics in your first post yesterday, but I'll be back for the rest! GREAT pics! I LOVE that 3rd one of the red-headed woody. The tree to the right looks like it has a face, and I imagine it talking like the apple tree in The Wizard of Oz! "Hey, what are you doin', peckin' on me like that?!" LOL

That pileated (I think that's right...) is one awesome bird! I really wish we had those here!

I have NO idea what kind of dragonfly that is, but he sure is fat, juicy, and handsome!

I can't wait to see your other pics! Thanks so much for posting all of your wild(and not so wild)life!

Brenda

Yes, Pileated WP! Great shots all around, thanks for sharing!

What is that purple flower you grew from seed? WOW, lovely! I want one!

That would be a common whitetail dragonfly - a female I believe. I bet you get some great dragonflies and damselflies with your woodland pond - can't wait to see more!

Watch for ebony jewelwings - they look like delicate butterflies flitting around the water's edge ...

Herman is a darling!! Oooo, LOVE that plant....is it Canterbury bell (Campanula)? You have so many awesome birds! I love the woody and grosbeak having a word! LOL

Brenda

Thanks everybody :-) Yes Brenda your right that purple flower is Canterbury bells campanula medium i beleive. Sara im so glad you liked it. I have wanted some for years and every time i buy them they die! Sooo i decided i would try to grow them from seed and it took a couple of years but i was so proud when they bloomed this year :-) They will probably die now! Hope not but i expect it. They seem really fragile.
Thank you Jean! I just loved watching it zoom around and don't have a clue what it was eating but i hope it was mosquitoes :-) Do they eat mosquitoes? I was so worried for her because she was hanging out on the deck under the gutters that the blue jays love to dig around in and i was worried they would spot her and have a nice juicy bug dinner. She sure looked fat to me. Maybe full of eggs? She seemed to be guarding the birdbath fountain. I just havent ever seen one that big before. Usually they are skinny with lots of wings zooming by but she kept hanging around and i was so excited to see her little plump self. I beleive dragonflies are carnivorous aren't they? My son was so excited too. I love nature. I will definitely keep my eyes out for the lovely jewelwings Jean. Thank you :-)

Brenda so glad you liked Herman! He/she has me trained. After breakfast or dinner i always carry the scrapes out with some bread and dog food to feed what ever comes by for a visit. Hermon is always sitting in the tree waiting and will "CAW" for me to hurry up. LOL...I hurry up too :-) The Bluejays have fits when Hermon is around but i love him/her anyway even if she eats the other birds babies its only to feed his own. Herman keeps ALL hawks and owls in their place too. I have seen him chase and attack a redtail hawk before. DO NOT mess with Herman! LOL...I feel really touched that he has made a connection with me and the food too. Hermon just had some babies come by for a visit but they wouldn't come down to eat. They just tried to hang on to the branches they were on and flopped and squawked a lot :-) Some didnt hang on to good and fell off so it was kinda funny to watch. Hope they come back for some more nibbles soon. They are always welcome. I will know they are here when the little Bluejay alarms go off. Life is good :-)
Bonnie

Haven't been on this one for awhile and it was good to get back to it today. I have been enjoying the ones you sent me by email. Guess I don't have enough large trees in the yard for the birds to be real close. All our big old trees are out behind the barn and around the edges of the property. I don't encourage them too close because of my cat. She loves the out of doors and keeps the rats and mice away from the barn. We have lots of crows and around out house it's the little birds chasing the crows.

One night I heard our German Shepherd raising a rukus out in the back yard in the middle of the night. I went out with a flashlight and there was a HUGE owl sitting in the back yard. I believe he was almost as big as the 86 lb. dog. The dog was going around and around the owl; barking like crazy. And that owls head was going around and around watching the dog. Neither one giving in to the other. And of course I didn't think to get the camera. I didn't know what to do, so I picked up a small flower pot and chunked it at the owl. He decided it was time for him to vacate the premises. He had the wingspan of an eagle. I still don't know what kind he was. But he was beautiful. Glenda