Where are the birds?

This is so strange. I haven't seen or heard a bird at my house in at least a week. No chickadees, titmice, cardinals, woodpeckers??
We live in the woods and never without birds.
I know its been cold and snowy but I've never seen them all disappear for this long. Anybody else missing some feathered friends?

Have plenty here. Do you have a feeder?

We have plenty here too. Maybe a hawk is nesting near by and scaring some away(?)

I haven't seen any woodpeckers since late Dec., & I have lots of nuts out for them....do have chicks, titmice, juncos, cardinals & a ton of blue jays......birds do migrate in the middle of winter according to the nature writer in our newspaper....they may have moved farther south....

They definitly will go where the food and water are.

Yes.....& this writer said the jays you have in the fall may not be the jays you have in January....robins, too, move a lot during the winter......there's a large flock that lives in the swamp near my son's house.

I have a ton of birds here every morning for food. If there is no food...I can hear them screeching at the other end of the house!

I have plenty.
Titmice,red and white breasted nuthatches,finches ,chickadees.
Jays and Cardinals.
Maybe a cat sits camoflaged.

Plenty of birds here, Blue-Jays, Cardinals, Carolina Wrens, Juncos, Morning Doves, Chickadees, etc.
- All the birds of summer except for Robins and Mockingbirds, (the Juncos and some extra Cardinals, Jays & Wrens have taken their place).

Had a hawk around today.

Everyone is hungry.

We have birds but not the normal amount, jays, chicks, morning doves etc. Usually have grako's, cow birds, yellow finches and red wing black birds, there is none.

Red wings are probably down in the Carolinas...if they're smart! Saw some mourning doves today for the first time in awhile....my goldfinches have disappeared.....

I haven't seen any birds here either. I took my feeder down because of the chipmunks, need to put it back up.

We are getting lots of birds at our new large pond. When the edges were frozen, they would sit there and drink. Even saw a few taking a bath in the waterfall. Talk about cold shower!

We had a hawk in our backyard this past week also. We have two small dogs so I was very careful each time I let them outside. Maybe I was being overcautious, but I would rather err on the side of caution then have one of our little girls carried away. They mean too much to us and we paid too much for them. LOL

I lot move farther south if their food is covered with snow. I have birds visiting me daily, I have feeders with safflower seed and thistle, so I get cardinals, finches, chickadees using them. I throw out 1pc of bread on the deck every morning and have gotten blue jays,wren, juncos and mockingbird eating that.


Dark eyed Junco eating a peanut butter sandwich leftover

Here's the mockingbird

Nice photos! And the dogs are so sweet looking....

Lots of birds due to feeders...sunflower seeds, toast crumbs and assorted tiny tidbit leftovers.

Mockingbirds are fascinating; not only their incredible, individualized repertoire, but one of the few species where the female migrates south, and the male stays up north (if I remember correctly).

Nice, Jen!

Question - I put out suet and black sunflower. Is that enough to attract all possible species or should I add something else??

That works fine for us. The birds eat us out fast with black oil sunflower seeds.

- Morning doves love cracked corn, and Cardinals love safflower seeds, Juncos and Wrens go for shelled peanuts, (I usually pick up a can of those El cheapo supermarket peanuts with NO salt added about once every two or three weeks and toss a handful under the feeders daily) - Those Carolina Wrens have a beautiful song..

Thanks.

Boring minutiae (I warned you!):


If a household uses raw bell peppers, pop out the top core, and you'll see 200 seeds, and those are precious to several species.

In fact, about 70% of your scraps are "bird worthy" (reference, Seinfeld's "sponge worthy"), you just need to cut everything to quarter-inch size. You can use a food processor once a week, and put out a small scoop every morning. I keep a refrigerated plastic container in ongoing usage.

Most people don't realize that their toaster has a crumb tray in the bottom, which is a buffet for a lot of birds.

People think of robins as eating just worms and insects, but they will eat fruit also, as will other species that eat worms/insects.

Most importantly: you can tell what a bird eats by the shape of its beak: the cardinal has the "nutcracker beak" for sunflower seeds; the goldfinch prefers thistle/niger black seed, etc.

I string pop corn, cranberries and peanuts like christmas decorations and put them on my left over christmas tree. It gives them a place to perch while they munch.
Bluejays love peanuts!!
Here's the dis-carded X-mas tree after the last storm....no birds and no treats to be seen! LOL

Great tips!!

I'll have to figure out how to put out peanuts and keep them from the squirrels.

Did you see the article in today's newletter?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1961/

Are the shelled peanuts small enough to put in a regular tube feeder??

Yes! - mixing some in is a viable option!

have plenty of birds here - have not kept up with keeping the feeders full as in the pass and it sometimes takes the birds a bit to come back.

I was under the assumption if you start feeding them in the winter it is a must to keep feeding them.

Same with kids.

No, I think birds are smart enough to fly over to someone else's feeder, or to get seeds still left on plants....woodpeckers go under the bark for dormant insects.....but, many birds do stay around areas where there are feeders & open water.....saw a few hooded mergansers in a tiny bit of open water at the dam today. My bird buddy, Buzzy & I watched them for a few minutes.

Victor if you buy peanuts in the shell and put them in a peanut feeder http://www.duncraft.com/index/page/product/product_id/589/category_id/24/category_chain/19,24/product_name/Energy+Ball+Feeder it will draw the woodpeckers and nuthatches and the squirrels have a hard time getting to them.

The only birds I haven't seen are blue jays and cardinals. I love watching the cardinals and not a one!


Erin

Thanks, Ron. I see that feeder is for 'energy ball' food. Have you tried it with whole peanuts??

TONS of crows here, big ones too!

Wrong link Victor sorry, this is similar to the one I have. http://www.duncraft.com/index/page/product/product_id/359/product_name/Peanut+in+the+Shell+Feeder

Here is a cropped pic of mine with a Woodpecker

Thanks, Ron!