Where are the chickadees??

We had plenty of chickadees last winter/spring, they are my favorites..so adorable at the feeder and friendly, I am concerned as I have not seen many this year at all. Could it be the red-tail hawks caught them? Is there anything I can do to entice them back?

Hi, Abby-- Interesting question. We were just commenting this morning that we had more chickadees than ever today at our feeders (Ohio).

Here's the chickadee count by city in Conn.

http://gbbc.birdsource.org/gbbcApps/report?cmd=showReport&reportName=SpeciesCity&species=bkcchi&state=US-CT&year=2007

Maybe you can see a pattern? I know in winter they travel in flocks of 10 or 12 birds looking for food in pine stands with lots of insects and seed feeders. Maybe you changed the seed in your feeder last winter or cut down your pines? Or perhaps sprayed last summer for insects?

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Black-capped_Chickadee_dtl.html

I googled a bit and there was a study of some Connecticut chickadees that commented that from mid-March to mid-April there seemed to be some kind of mini-migration of banded chickadees--a dispersal mostly northward (?) 50 or 75 miles or more and a few southward. The researchers surmised that there was some kind of nesting/territorial issues at stake. Mmmm... could that be an issue in your case?

One site says they like to nest in old woodpecker holes and tree cavities. Another mentions that they don't travel farther than 7 ha from their nesting during breeding season...so that may be a clue to where they are now, too.

Just some ideas....Maybe you can make some adjustments to your habitat to attract them back...they are so cute and really perk up our dull gray back yard these early weeks in spring.

Half of them are probably sitting on a batch of eggs at the moment!

They also tend to go more for natural insect food in the woods at this time of year, and spend less time on feeders.

Resin

Wow, thanks! After reading your reply Tabasco, it occured to me that we did transplant a huge row of forsythia when we put up our barn this fall that acted as a perfect staging area for the little buggers while waiting for the feeder.
That being said we did start our pinetum with a stand of five huge norway spruce on the other side, maybe I should be looking over that way! Let's hope there are some nesting out there somewhere. Thank you both and have a delightful day, Abby