For such a simple design, platform bird feeders can be surprisingly expensive -- and unglamourous. Check the thrift store for ...

Here are observations on three subjects during a mostly dreary week when the weather pendulum, as usual for late February, swung back and forth between winter and spring: Quail season ended Feb. 23.

DEAR JOAN: I feed the many quail we have around here. Would you please advise the times of year I should feed them? If I need to stop feeding them, how do I do so? They come running when they see me.