Where have all the birds gone?

[upthesaukee]

We had quite a few birds at our feeders up until around Thanksgiving. Had Chickadees, nuthatches, goldfinches, purple and house finches, cardinals morning and evening.

Ran out of seed and bought a different brand of black oil. Shortly thereafter I put out the inflatable Santa and Grinch on our front deck, which is fairly close to the feeders, 10-15 ft away.

We have had decreasing number of birds over the last month, and now they are almost non-existent. There is a water supply available for them, our stream which is not iced over and accessible to them. Even went out and bought the old seed brand. I also have suet feeders out...even the woodpeckers seem to have stopped coming.

We have two tube feeders, one platform, and one round reservoir feeder with a feeding tray at the bottom.

Short of be sitting out there doing bird imitations, any thoughts? Any one else having this problem?

[VitaBene]

If they are smart they headed south!!

[Just Sold]

Originally Posted by upthesaukee

We had quite a few birds at our feeders up until around Thanksgiving. Had Chickadees, nuthatches, goldfinches, purple and house finches, cardinals morning and evening.

Ran out of seed and bought a different brand of black oil. Shortly thereafter I put out the inflatable Santa and Grinch on our front deck, which is fairly close to the feeders, 10-15 ft away.

We have had decreasing number of birds over the last month, and now they are almost non-existent. There is a water supply available for them, our stream which is not iced over and accessible to them. Even went out and bought the old seed brand. I also have suet feeders out...even the woodpeckers seem to have stopped coming.

We have two tube feeders, one platform, and one round reservoir feeder with a feeding tray at the bottom.

Short of be sitting out there doing bird imitations, any thoughts? Any one else having this problem?

The same has happened down here in Derry. I have not seen any birds for about a week. I filled the feeder right around Christmas and it is only down an inch or so. We always had lots of birds and I was forever filling the feeder. No idea why we have none now.

[donnamatrix]

We are over in Suissevale, and have plenty of birds. We have a long, tubular feeder at the front (anti-squirrel, but not the Buster) and two window feeders in dining & living rooms (above garage, so bear proof). The window feeders have reflective backing and attach to window with a suction cup. This allows the two Siamese cats to get very close and watch the birds, but the birds cannot see them. It's also fun for us, especially when the rose-breasted Grosbeak comes to feed. Make sure you are putting seed on the ground - the junco and cardinal and others prefer ground feeding. We buy the hearts of sunflowers at Chick-a-Dee Station - I cannot stand the mess the black oil seeds make, and birds are messy enough!

[hilltopper]

I fill a hanging platform feeder with black oil sunflower seed on days/weekends I'm going to be around. After all, they don't NEED us to feed them but we sure do like watching them feed.

There's always some chickadees that occupy the cherry tree as I'm putting up a full feeder. The tufted titmice are soon to follow. Sometimes a group of house finch will show up. Blue jays enjoy the suet and the seed on the ground from time to time. A few days ago a flock of 20 turkeys came single file out of the woods to help clean up the seed under the feeder.

So no, no issues with birds not coming to the feeder...

[DRH]

We have lots of birds here in West Alton. Lots of chickadees, nuthatches, etc. And a bright red male cardinal has been coming to the ground under our feeder each day.

[Chaselady]

Lot's of birds at our neighbor's feeders here in Tuftonboro. Maybe the inflatable Xmas figures scared them off.

[CateP]

Bird report from Wolfeboro.

Chickadees a-plenty. (my they are bold) Tuftatitmouse ocassionally. Downy Woodpecker not seen a few weeks at suet. Blue Jay, Cardindal, Junco and Morning Doves (20+) every day. Huge gang of Morning Doves. Three crows came by over the weekend and fed on the ground.

[Merrymeeting]

I put my feeders out about a week ago. No activity for many days until the birds found them. Over the past few days, like others. Many chickadees and other birds almost non-stop during daylight (not to mention the squirrels!)

[dpg]

The smart ones are down in Orlando picking up all the Fries the kids throw their way.

[bclaker]

As I just drove in my driveway, I scared off a couple dozen robbins feasting on the Winter fruit of the Bradford Pear Tree next to it.

[Slickcraft]

As DRH has reported, there is no shortage of birds here. Filling the feeders is a daily task. Also no shortage of squirrels to take care of what falls to the ground.

As for the squirrels, they are even doing better actually. Ms Slickcraft had me make a shelf feeder that corn cobs can be screwed to sitting upright so the critters can sit on the shelf and eat the dry corn. And no target practice allowed!

[Rusty]

Interesting article about birds in todays LDS: http://issuu.com/dailysun/docs/lds1-10-13/1?mode=a_p

[SIKSUKR]

Will I get duck itch if I do snow angels in that yard?

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by SIKSUKR

Will I get duck itch if I do snow angels in that yard?

That's funny!
You might get something else also.
The article said that there were 47 Grey squirrels,
six red squirrels, two skunks, and a black bear who
have visited the bird feeders.

Below is some of the article:

[dpg]

Maybe this country should spend a few million a year feeding the birds in the winter time. Hell we could just pull it from the billions we send to other countries who turn around and bomb us anyway.