... Maybe this will work!

Picture it ...

Six chickadee fledglings show up with mom and dad this morning while we are having breakfast on the deck. All the little chicks are begging pitifully, putting on the whole show with fluttering of wings and strident little cheeps and chirps. Mom and Dad are trying to get them to learn by seeing, so they are eating their seeds and trying to show the kids how it all works. These two little self starters decided to tackle the suet feeder on their own. After all, how hard could it be? Mom and dad just perch on it and stick their beaks in and they get suet. Easy peasy.

Or not...

These two little guys just couldn't seem to work out that the suet was at the bottom of the cage, not the top. There was a lot of analysis and discussion before C1 decided to drop down a bit closer to the prize. I am not sure, but I think I heard dad cheer...

This made up a bit for the untimely crash of the wren box yesterday. It seems that at least 6 of the chickadee brood who hatched in our box several weeks ago are doing well. They are as big as their parents and the only way I can tell the chicks from the parents is that they chicks are still fluttering and begging. They have the cutest little chirping noise that they use to get mom and dad's attention. They've been coming to the feeders for the last 3 days, so I guess the forest portion of their survival training is complete.

By the way, sorry for the poor image quality - it was gloomy and I had to set the ISO stupidly high.

Hubs and I worked out in the yard all day, mulching under some of our trees and along our walkway. Our front walk is 80 feet (stay with me, I'm about to make a point.) Hubs really wanted to plant flowers along the outside of the walkway. Which translated to me doing it while he did the heavier mulch work. So, off I went to the local farm where I purchased 3 flats of 24 vincas each. That's a lot of vincas, by the way. I'm happy to tell you that they are ALL planted, except for the 10 that were leftover. I'll stick them somewhere in the back tomorrow. Vincas are similar to impatiens, but the deer don't eat them (supposedly) and they are very tolerant of sun and drought - perfect for our front walkway! One year I planted impatiens out there and they were really not happy - too hot, too much sun, etc. The pansies I planted the next year were also not pleased. So, we'll see how the vincas do.

Grilling some tuna steaks tonight, with roasted beets and sauteed beet greens (also from the local farm)...and maybe a nice un-oaked chardonnay! (I hate oaky white wines...)

Hope you're all having a great weekend!