Looking from afar the snowy scenes sure are pretty!

Just bare bones around here!

My dear friend Phoebe has been sleeping under the porch eave. Actually, there's one Phoebe roosting under the back porch and another under the front porch.

Eastern Phoebe

I've spotted some egg casings ~

Tent worm egg casing

Britnay - totally agree that you should add a baffle if your feeder(s) are hanging from a pole. It's pretty funny to see a squirrel start to climb up the pole and realize there's an unexpected obstacle. (my baffle was put on years after the rest of the get up.)

Theoretically the feeders are supposed to be around 8 feet from tree branches and overhead wires or whatever to make it hard for the squirrels to get to the feeders. But since they've been clocked at running 20 mph, well I think they can probably leap downwards with a little effort. The pictures that mcash posted show what works good for keeping squirrels and large birds away from the feeders. They might hang around on the ground below scrounging for seeds that a bird might have dropped.

Depending on the season (which is hard to determine around here) and my pocketbook, I'll have 3 or 4 feeders going. I got a really good setup years ago which was smart. I usually hang 2 'regular' feeders on it and add a small suet cage if the birds are out in full force. I tried to also attach a small dish to put fruit in but the birds ignored it so I took it down. Now the really dumb thing that I did was to put this feeder too far from my windows. Have to use binoculars to watch the birds. Duh.

Think twice about birdhouses. Birds are very picky about how and where they nest. And since you have a creek and a wooded area nearby, I bet most of them will create their own styles to nest in. They're very particular.

I'm so happy now that the birds are slowly coming 'round to my feeders again. Right now the jays are making a beeline to the peanut feeder and I saw some house finches at the hopper that has a mix in it. Cardinals go for both but they especially like the mix because it has a lot of black oiled sunflower seeds in it. Also saw a red bellied woodpecker at the peanut feeder. Too bad I don't have a camera.

I just cleaned the finch feeder and will put thistle in it for the goldfinches. They usually arrive in November so maybe they'll be here soon.

Yay! The birds are back in town! Ack! They're dropping 'presents' on my car.

Bee experts - do you have any ideas for this poster: The thread "Honeybees & peanut hearts???" in Gardening for Butterflies, Birds and Bees forum

More egg casings - Praying mantis

Bavarian Squirrel distance picture , Black Squirrel blends into the old Maple At the V in the limbs at the top of the trunk ..

Sorry, Mellilong's link to this Honeybees and Peanut hearts, confused me. I meant to enter this into the 'Bee Friends and Other Guests, Chapter 7, 2017' part of the Thread. I don't know how to transfer it, so I will try to post it there.
Can one cross post? Is that what the Quote thing is for? I think I'll try that.

HemNorth said:
This Thread reminded me that I wanted to add this photo to the collection I'd already submitted to the Database, because it focusses on the bees that visit these blooms all summer long. My father was a Beekeeper in the Okanagan Valley, B.C. from 1930 to 1960. He had quite a flower garden, and this was one of his favourites, because there were always fresh blooms for the bees. In all our moves, it always came along. I'm delighted to have this Moroccan Poppy at my new place, now.

It worked! I was able to get this into the right place by using the Quote mechanism.
Sorry if this is confusing - I experimented on the apology I wrote to the other thread I'd accessed through mellielong's link. When that worked, I tried it with what I'd written "over there", but I had to re-add the photo.

I've been a member for almost a year now - since Feb. 28th, 2016 - and this is the first time I've had success with using a Quote box!! I'm in my seventies, and have never had a computer course - I rely on what my husband and son have taught me. Glad for what I learned today!

Good job! You did it

That's a great flower and a great shot! Those aren't bees though...some kinda copulating flies

Nature sure loves mimicry. I had to look real close to see they were flies. But we appreciate all pollinators on this thread - and in our gardens!

almost all--have to confess that I loathe the narcissus bulb flies

Sorry - - - didn't know they were flies! Oh, well, - - - live and let live. They were just doing their job, I guess. And with fewer bees, we need all the help we can get.

No apologies needed, Nora! I always like the chance to learn something new so that was good. I'm glad we've got so many experts in our forum. Bees certainly do the majority of pollinator work, but many plants have very specialized pollinators. I think we all know about plants that smell like carrion to attract the flies that pollinate them (i.e. corpse flower). And then, there are moths who specialize in pollinating things like orchids (i.e. Darwin's moth).

As one of my little trivia facts I like to drop on the butterfly thread, I read once that butterflies pollinate about 15% of plants. Of course, they're not as efficient as bees. But we do indeed, need all the help we can get. And we have to remember that the most commonly used pesticides effect lots of our pollinator friends. I really like this thread because it's made me more aware of just how much life my little half acre supports!

No problem! It's not easy to discern until you learn--and for me, that's often the hardway
I used to run around snapping and posting pics of 'the cutest little bumble bees' that were really the flies from the maggots that destroy my daffodils
Now I run around with an electric racket and try to zap them before they lay more eggs ...

Almost forgot to post this garden guest from today! Technically, it was in Dad's woodpile, which my dad and brother were tidying up and sorting. My brother moved this little guy over to the butterfly garden and he warned me it was there so I wouldn't be startled. He thought it was a Hognose snake, but now he's looking at the pictures on Facebook and he's not sure. Then, Dad started looking at the pictures I posted on Facebook and now they're both Googling images of snakes. Any reptile experts out there?

Melanie, I think I saw that snake on a search somewhere, but since it wasn't the one I was looking for.........and the last time I googled snakes, I picked up a virus on my computer. His snout looks safe anyway. I ran across a coral snake wannabee the other day. It was a rat snake. I knew it wasn't coral since I've seen them closer than I ever really wanted to.

After work if it's early enough, say between 4 and 6:00, I am blessed with many bird visitors in my yard. At this time of the year many are of the finch or sparrow type. They are small and so very quick. After the rains the birdbaths have fresh water and they come to drink and bathe. Yesterday in addition to the small birds, I had some blue birds and cardinals (they are back) a dove, a piliated woodpecker who lives across the road and a robin (not common except maybe during the winter migrations) I let most of my fall blooming flowers (seeds) stay on the stem to feed the birds, since I don't do feeders. I live in the woods so haven't a care about the neatness of my gardens.

Although I have many evergreen plants, they don't bloom in the winter and I am so ready for spring, bees, butterflies and blooms.

Molly

Hmm.. it might be a Florida Water Snake, although I'm not very good at ID-ing snakes. Usually just run away too fast.

http://cages.smugmug.com/HerpG...

Great snake pics Melanie. I can't help at all with an id, but I bet someone on iNaturalist can. If you don't want an iNat account you can also login with Facebook, Google, Flickr, Yahoo, etc. I wish I came across snakes. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen them, and it was always very briefly and just tiny garter snakes.

After much research, the guys decided it was an Eastern Hognose snake which is what I told them last night. I don't see snakes too often, either. My dad goes hunting every year and he says he doesn't see snakes often because he doesn't look for them. His hunting buddy is super paranoid about them. I've only ran into them a few times while gardening. Twice it was black snakes and once I was weeding and a Ringneck suddenly took off! It was so small, but it sure did scare me with the unexpected movement.