The beautiful Zinnias in my backyard garden have really taken a hit this summer. From slugs to insects I have sprinkled and sprayed, hoping for a nice bouquet in my kitchen before summer’s end.

And then a couple of weeks ago I noticed that the flowers themselves, not the leaves, were getting destroyed. What would do that? I guessed it was a rabbit or deer so I put some smelly pellets out to deter them. But he flowers still kept getting eaten… petal by petal.

And then I looked out the window and saw these two little American Goldfinches flitting from Zinnia to Zinnia enjoying each and every petal. Caught!

So now I cut the flowers and bring them inside just as they bloom and the little Goldfinches can have the others to feast on.

Look at those two smiling at me in the first photograph! Ha!

This young Northern Flicker was having a blast splashing around in our bird bath. There were two of them there for a bit. He was just so cute! And then when he was finished with his bath, he stood on the side of the bath and kept opening his beak. I didn’t hear any sound come out  but he sure was adorable!

How cute is this?

With all of the birds having chicks in the past few weeks, we sure do have a lot of juvenile Baltimore Orioles in our yard. They seem to come here to feed from our “never ending Grape Jelly feeder,” for a drink and then a bath. Not bad!

This little guy was so cute in our bird bath. He almost matches the flowers in the background, huh?

I was out in the yard early this morning when I heard the call of Northern Flickers everywhere. I looked up in the tree and there were 5 of them… 2 adults and 3 smaller ones,. They looked too big to be chicks but they were all hanging out together so maybe they were parents and chicks? The small ones were pretty big, but Northern Flickers are pretty big too.

They were bantering back and forth and flying back and forth for a while when this smaller one landed on our birdbath for a drink of water.

He’s just beautiful, don’t you think?

When do Bluebirds leave their birdhouses for good?  Is it when they fledge?

I keep seeing this little Bluebird sticking its head out of the hole looking around. I’m not sure if there are other little ones in there too. And maybe this is a different one each time. I think they fledged a couple of weeks ago.

So I wondered if Bluebirds go back to their bird house at night  after they have fledged? And for how long? Does anyone know the answers to these questions? Everything that I have read says that Bluebirds do not go back to their nest or birdhouse once they have fledged.

A dilemma for sure… Hmmm…