Mealworms & More!

My mealworm shipment finally arrived. I ordered 5000 last Friday from New York Worms (www.nyworms.com). Then our weather turned cold again so I got a little bit worried. They were being delivered to my house by Priority Mail. Shipped on Monday, 2-4 days for shipping, oh yeah, it's gonna be cold when they get here. There was a very real chance that my worm investment would get frozen before I got home from work because the mail is usually delivered before 10:30. So, I put a little note in the mailbox for my "Postal Delivery Person" asking them to please put the box of worms inside a big picnic cooler by the front door. No worms yesterday, but today when we got home, Rick noticed right away there was something in the cooler. Sure enough, the worms were here, but the shipping box was so big the cooler lid didn't close tight. Oh-Oh, I thought, frozen worms for sure.

I took them in the house and let them warm up for a little bit while I got my big, covered worm container out and cut up some potatoes (worms are always really hungry after traveling long distances!) And by the time I got everything ready and started unpacking the little squirmy guys, they were looking pretty good. What a relief. Now I won't have to ration servings for the chickadees anymore and I'll still have plenty of worms available when the orioles start arriving in a few weeks.

These are some good looking worms -- some are almost and inch and a half long, and fat too! Look at them all here enjoying their worm supper. I know they like potatoes, but I also had some cabbage in the refrigerator and they seem to like that too.

I remember back when I first started working at Wild Birds Unlimited, I could barely even open the container of worms to show customers. I'm sure glad I got over that phobia, because mealworms are some of the best treats I can put out for my birds. I could hear the chickadees outside chirping grace: "Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grubs, yea Ruthie."

And now, here's the "More" as mentioned in today's title. My phone rang at work around 8:00 this morning and it was my sister calling to tell me she had pictures of a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker in her yard, at the suet feeder. Very exciting and also unusual as this is considered a summer bird for us in Minnesota. I asked her if she would let me post a picture on my blog and she drove out right after work and we downloaded this picture off her disc.

She lives right in town, but there are lots of mature trees in the neighborhood and in her yard. Last summer she also had a pair of Red-Headed Woodpeckers that stayed the whole summer season. I'm still working on trying to convert her to my Purple Martin discipleship. There's a purple martin landlord about 3 blocks away from her place with a couple of T-14 houses full every summer and her front yard would be the perfect spot to put up a gourd rack because she has a nice open flyway between the street, driveways, and her house, plus a couple of overhead lines for perching. Think about it Sissy.....we've still got time to get that pole cemented in the ground before martins start arriving.