My son told me today "that syrup in the feeder is sweet."

"How do you know that?" I inquired.

He told me he bumped into it and got some of the water on himself and tasted it. I read him the riot act about tasting old sugar water, and about the contamination that can happen for both he and the birds. I'll clean it and refill the feeder tomorrow.

We had finches at the seed feeder this afternoon--looked like one of a couple of different types that the bird book says don't occur here. This won't be the first time the book was wrong. I'd also thrown some dried bagel out on the lawn for the grackles, and they picked up the pieces and soaked them in the bird bath before eating. So now I'll also clean the bird bath tomorrow.

SRS