Fall 2008

It is November 3rd, a day before the elections,and we are very worried about the outcome.

We have had a busy year and have neglected to post anything.

We have had some luck with our Blue Birds. Al put up 3 houses for them. We had 2 families and they each had 3 nests. We were having good luck with the family down by the pasture, they would come to us for meal worms and were more friendly then the family by the house. During late August we had Tropical Storm Fay come through. We got 26 inches of rain in 3 DAYS! We didn't get much wind or lightning, but it just kept raining and raining. Our pond filled up and flowed down into the creek. It washed away a lot of our rocks on the driveway. Our poor birds were miserable. Many of them took refuge under our front porch roof. We put food on the porch for them. Mostly these were the House Finches. We did have one poor soaking wet Blue Bird that didn't seem to get along with the others. He had to find shelter off on his own and then kept flying off every few minutes. He never seemed to dry out. After the storm we found one dead Blue Bird. We don't know if it was the same one or not. A few days after the storm Al noticed we didn't seem to have any Blue Birds. I checked with a friend who monitors them closely and she told me after they nest they take a "vacation" and they find homes for the "kids." Sure enough our House Blue Birds came back with only 2-3 children. They made a few vacations and now have come back with just the 2 of them. I guess they found suitable housing for all the kids. The pasture family came back about 2 weeks ago with many of the family. We were sure it was the same ones because they acted just like normal, they checked out both of their houses and their Mimosa Tree and demanded mealworms. The next day they were all gone and we haven't seen them since. ????

Our Nancy's (Carolina Wrens) have been busy all summer. They hadn't been spending the night in our flower baskets but now that it's cool again they are back. We have to stay off the front porch after dusk to keep them happy. Al made the mistake of walking on the porch one night after bedtime and got scolded!

We had our first frost on October 27th. We were gone camping at Florida Caverns State park and it got down to 41 the first night and 31 then next. For most of last week we woke up to frost on the yard.

Went to Sam's Club and bought 200 Daffodil bulbs. They were so pretty last year and were about the only bulb I planted that I had success with.