Thunderbird's blog

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Yuck! Recently, I came home to an explosion of moths in my house. I started seeing them a week or so before they appeared en masse--one or two here and there, and I didn't think much about them. Then one evening, it appeared we were bombarded. I started spraying and sweeping the moths up, when I noticed that there were a lot on the ceiling of one room. I was disgusted.

Stacy helped battle the buggers and clean up when she eyed the 10# bag of wild bird seed in the corner of the room where they appeared most. We'd found the source, and threw the bag outside.

We have a red tipped photinia hedge outside our bathroom window which has historically held Northern Cardinal families each spring. The other day, I heard the loud singing of a Carolina Wren after exiting the same nest to perch upon a nearby tree.

Since, I have watched this Wren disappear into the shrub often with a leaf or other brush in its mouth, wildly shake the leaves about as it builds upon this two-family nest, and then flies out the top of the hedge in search of more building material.

Argh! My birdfeeders are being emptied by an extended family of squirrels! The other day, I opened my blinds to 5 squirrels in various locations around my yard and thought, "Isn't there another feeder they can feast at?"

How do you handle the "squirrel problem"? I'm interested in any advice you can offer!

Tbird

Fifteen years ago I moved from Boston to Texas. I was thrilled that as a novice birder (even more novice than I am now :) I had compiled a list of "backyard journal" some thirty birds spotted from my yard--a 6000 square foot postage stamp of a place.

I remember some thrilling times in that entry period: seeing and hearing the deep, resonant song of a Baltimore Oriole, spotting my first brilliantly colored American Goldfinch, learning the difference between a Purple Finch and a House Finch, and in a bittersweet experience, seeing my first Cedar Waxwing but alas, dead.