Exactly the same scenario here. I want to feed the birds but not to the hawks. Sigh!

Taking it down a notch, I feel bad gardening for the bees and butterflies, knowing that the birds can get at 'em.... ah well.

It doesn't bother me much when things are eaten in one fell swoop rather than being picked apart. Most of the birds don't seem very interested at all in my bees and butterflies though, just a few species.

I've never seen a bird eat a bee or a butterfly. The little Anole Lizards are a different story though; I quite often see them stalking and grabbing butterflies and moths for a quick meal!

Does anyone know if bees sting birds? I've been wondering about that lately as our Bottlebrush tree is in full bloom and the bees have been all over it for the past few weeks. I took this picture last Friday, a Cardinal perched in the tree with his eyes closed. It was a chilly morning and he seemed to be warming up in the sun but I wondered if he had his eyes closed to keep the bees from stinging?

I think bees and wasps can sting them, Lin, but birds are usually very quick. My hummers seem to back away from their feeders if bees happen to be on or around them. On the other hand, they don't always back away from me. I am not an expert on this though.

Is the Anole Lizard the one with blue stripes?

We have the Green Anole Lizard:


Brown Anole Lizard and Six Lined Skink:


And a little baby lizard I spotted last summer with unusual coloration and markings:



They all eat ants and other bugs, butterflies and moths.

Those are *great*!

OK, then it's the Skink I'm thinking of. We also have (or had) a lot of the Green Anoles. Unfortunately, one of the cats likes to hunt lizards and I'm not sure how many are left ... but they will return. And hopefully the cat won't be as interested in them.

We have loads of the Green Anole lizards but I only see a Skink on rare occasions. I used to rescue little green lizards from our cats all the time. I don't much care for creepy crawlies but the little lizards don't have teeth so they don't bother me at all.

A couple of photo's from this afternoon. Cardinal, Warbler, Blue Jay and a Hawk in flight:

One of these days I am going to get a better camera. I keep threatening to do that.

The cardinals and jays are particularly busy in my backyard. They are oh-so-blue and red in preparation for Spring mating. Beautiful!

Neat perspective on the jay!

New bird for me...woohoo! I'm just SO lucky! This colorful bird showed up at the feeder outside my kitchen window this morning...must have been really hungry, because it didn't fly away when I stuck my camera between the curtains and starting clicking away through the window! Although...it did seem a bit nervous!



I took my bird book and camera with me when I took DH to an appointment in the city so I could try to ID it. It took me quite a while, but I finally settled on the rarely seen Audubon's Oriole!
Not a lot of info available on it, so I'm not sure exactly what it could have been eating from the feeder, but boy, if it's still here tomorrow I'll offer it a few more choices to eat!

That's great!

Oh Wow ... how fortunate to see that lovely bird at your backyard feeder!! Like you, I couldn't find much information on this one; only that it's a secretive bird inhabiting forests and thickets of Mexico and Southeastern Texas! What a beauty!

Linda, that is a great sighting, how exciting for you.

Somehow I missed the lovely photos since the new thread was started, it didn't show up on my watch list. I did a quick catch up and there were lots of great photos.