They come in such pretty colors too.

I use my garage as a giant potting shed and storage for my garden supplies. It also gets jammed full. Today and managed to make some more space by moving stuff around and throwing a few unnecessary items out.

My mini van car wouldn't fit in my garage even if it was totally empty.

It is almost September which makes me think of Fall. I feed the birds mixed birdseed all summer which I keep in a big can in the garage. I just toss some on the driveway each day. Really they don't need the seed so much in the summer. I just like to see the birds come visit and eat. But in the winter I feed them the mixed birdseed and I also get cracked corn in big bags at our local Agway Feed Store in 50 pound bags. So I am thinking soon it will be time to get a bag of cracked corn to add to the seed.

I have some very fat squirrels all fall and winter long since they eat the corn. Morning Doves too!

Oh yes, I keep the corn in my garage which is why I decided I need to make some space.

Mixed seed isn't popular with the birds around here, they don't like millet, and they won't touch nyjer or thistle seed at all, so my feeders contain just black oil sunflower seeds. I also scatter corn on the ground for the geese in summer, the turkeys in winter, and crows, squirrels and chipmunks year round. I put peanuts on the bird table for crows, jays, and raccoons all year, and add a couple of peanut feeders just for the birds in winter. The birds also get suet in winter, but it's too messy to feed them suet in the summer as the suet cakes go soft and disintegrate.

DH buys huge bags of sunflower seed and corn from the local feed store, and decants the bags into metal bins (garbage cans with locking lids) so that rodents can't get into the containers. The bins are in a garage-sized garden shed with numerous holes in the structure that allow mice and chipmunks to find their way in!

I guess my birds are not that fussy. They finish up the mixed seed I put out each day. I really think putting it on the ground means everything gets cleaned up. Now some seeds are more popular than others but eventually they all get eaten. And I think the morning doves are not so fussy. I think they eat just about any seed they see.

Rita, I agree that everything on the ground gets cleaned up, but - in my yard, it's cleaned up by raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, and mice, instead of birds! I'm surprised some of the rodents can move, they're so fat.

Has fall hawk migration started? There was a beautiful large hawk in the garden yesterday, trying to catch a grackle or a red wing blackbird. The hawk was brown with a white patch on its rump, so I think it was a female Northern Harrier.

In my case it is eaten by birds are squirrels. There is nothing left by dark so I know it is not the racoons or mice.

I had my last suet feeder go missing again overnight but I finally found it late this afternoon beneath a shrub next to the fence. Raccoons clean up all seed, suet etc. here if anything is left out overnight! I've noticed the past month and a half that the birds don't visit the feeders very often ... must be lots of plants with seeds and berries for them at this time of year.

Hawks are in abundance here and I love hearing their calls and watching them; I just don't like to see them take songbirds but I know it's all part of nature.

These are old photo's I took of hawks visiting my yard ... looking for, and sometimes catching their dinner. One is kind of graphic so I hope I don't offend anyone by posting it.

Cooper's Hawk 8/3/10 ............................. and Red-shouldered Hawk 8/4/10


Red-tailed Hawks 1/12/11


Coopers Hawk 9/21/11 ................................... and Red-shouldered Hawk 11/12/11

It is sad that they take the songbirds but hawks are such majestic birds and everyone has to eat. Nature is beautiful and sometimes cruel.

This time of year, the Painted Buntings here are starting to disappear. No "pretty boys" have shown up for a while, and less of the other Painted Buntings remain. Makes me sad. But even if these leave, I'll probably see some later passing through from elsewhere!

House Finch...I think. It went to the hummingbird feeder after this. Funny how birds grow to like that nectar!

Lesser Goldfinch.

Our Baltimore Orioles that were here for the summer have been gone for over a month. but we are getting orioles that are migrating south now. Every year it seems we get more and go longer into the season. Have had any this late before. Took these last Sunday and we still have a group here coming and eating jelly.

Those are really pretty birds!

What kind of jelly do you feed the orioles, Claudia?

The morning Doves still come each day to eat the seeds.

I think the Baltimore Oriole might be my favorite of all the beautiful birds.

Claudia: Great shots of the Orioles! They are beautiful birds, wish we got them down here!

Rita: Mourning Doves are so common but they are one of my all time favorite birds, they seem so graceful and gentle to me and I love hearing them coo! Unfortunately it's a common game bird: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... with MILLIONS! shot each year ... so sad!

Happy last day of August everyone! These pictures are from yesterday afternoon.

Mourning Dove, first photo taken from my deck and the second through the bedroom window:


Northern Cardinal that perched on a plant I have hanging just over the deck in a tree and a Woodpecker visiting the suet feeder:

Lin, your shots of Morning Doves are much better than mine! I didn't know they are being shot but fortunately they are safe here in Suburbia.

Yeah, I'm so glad they are safe here in suburbia too! I don't call shooting birds or animals sport, to me it's just murder unless you are eating it and Doves are such small birds I can't imagine you'd get much meat from one.

First birds I've been able to photograph w/ any decency at all this year (distance has been a problem due to recovering from eye surgeries).

Goldfinches snacking on sunflower seeds-