Saturday Stuff

I have a really big Droll Yankee tube feeder hanging in the backyard from my perching pole (the pole I stuck in the ground to attract birds before I had any trees). The seed catcher tray on this feeder hangs almost 5 feet above the ground. This morning when I put the dogs out, I noticed this feeder was hanging really goofy. "What the heck?" I walked out for a closer look and saw that the hanging hook on the pole was completely bent over and the seed catcher tray was also damaged. Then it dawned on me what had happened. This is what deer damage looks like on a bird feeder that deer have to stand on their hind legs to eat out of.

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but because there is some dirt on the top edge of the tray, I think one of the deer must have stood on its hind legs and hooked a hoof on the edge of the seed catcher tray to eat the seed (it's a mix with cracked corn in it). Its hoof probably got snagged on the tray because one of the wooden sides was broken apart at the screw. As the deer continued to pull its hoof free the hanging bracket bent and the whole feeder came down. I installed a new hanging bracket and now the bottom of the tray is at my eye level (about 5.5 feet). There must not have been enough corn and deer pellets to satisfy those hungry deer last night, so they got into the bird seed. I'll have to make sure there's enough of the stuff they really like on the ground every night.

I did get some good pictures of the brown thrasher through the dining room window today. They have nested in the yard for the last 2 years. I have only seen one so far this year, but they are so secretive that I never know whether there's a pair or not until I accidentally find their nest. The nest they used for the last 2 years has not been re-built, so I'm guessing they've found another tree to hide their nest in. Although I don't see them much, I do enjoy listening to them sing.

Isn't he a cool looking bird? I love his bright yellow eyes.

I'm starting to see some re-growth in the wildflower patch that was burned last Saturday. It's coming slow, but there is definitely some green beginning to show. Maybe with some more rain predicted for late tomorrow and Monday plus some warm temps the growth will speed up next week.

It's rummage sale season. I've got one planned for next Saturday, but my neighbor up the street is having one this weekend. When we walked the dogs this morning, I saw she had a nice looking ceramic flowerpot on the driveway. I've been looking for some new pots for hummingbird flowers I put on the deck. Rick walked home with the dogs while I did some shopping. Here are the nice ceramic pots I got today.....3 pots for $7! (heckuva deal!) These will look really nice on the deck once I get some flowering annuals in them.

Brother Phil in California sent these photos of the dove family in his backyard hanging flowerpot. He told me yesterday these little ones have finally fledged but they stayed in the nest a long time and the parents still tried sitting on top of them even when they had gotten so big. He also reported that the plant in the pot was still alive after the dove babies fledged.

You can just see one of the babies peeking out down to the left of the adult. He sent me another photo of just the babies, but I couldn't get it to copy from the e-mail. If I can get it to work in the next couple days, I will include it in a future post.