Lack of birds at feeder !!!???

The sparrows and juncos are having a good time eating flower seeds in my garden. I haven't cleaned it up yet and now I have justification for leaving it. There is some whispier stuff that probably can't hold their weight. Now that the floor level has risen a foot or so they can just walk up and dine.

 

Strange winter
All the birds have disappeared. Even the common sparrows. Only thing Ive seen at the feeder in the last week is a pair of cardinals.

 

Lots and lots of birds around. There is a pecking order for sure. Blue Jays rule the roost. All the others pretty much get along and share. My guess is the Blue Jays are fledgling politicians. lol. Hope your friends return JustWood.

 

I used to love to sit and watch all the birds at the feeder, but I didn't appreciate all the poop all over everything on the porch. Then all the seed that was thrown on the ground was another problem. Seems the mice just absolutely loved the seed and would raid the feeder at night tossing more seed to the ground. I could fill the feeder the night before and in the morning it would be half empty. So I put out some IR Cameras to see what was going on. Mice! Then during the day a good number of squirrels doing their strange acrobatics to get to the seed. Well, they made for some good eating.

The mice, well, they would store seed all over the place and I discovered they would also bring the seed inside my house. I hate mice! The mice also attracted other predators including cats, which isn't all bad, other than the fact that they still come around and a couple use my gardens as their own personal toilet.

So the feeders had to go. Now the only feeders I put up are for the Hummingbirds. At least their poops are tiny, and I don't have to feed them during the winter unless one or more decide to overwinter here which has happened. My last one left in mid October 2015, almost a month after the others were gone.

With this warmer than usual winter, I wonder if the hummers will come back early this year. I already have 10 pounds of table sugar on standby.

 

We just feed from November until April then it comes down for the summer. it's about 15 feet off the veranda and animals cannot bother it. it is 6 feet off the ground and sits on a 3 inch PVC covered post (shaved down 2x4 inside that sits in a post spike I drive into the ground) which no animals around here are able to climb. Squirrels and racoons (bears are hibernating) cannot get a grip on it as it is too large and expect mice cannot either. I heard about this and tried it and it works great. If mice bother it try spraying it with Armour All. Makes it super slippery. We see the birds all around every day with sometimes 50 or more at a time. The squirrels works the ground underneath and co-exists with the birds real well. In spring we just rake up the area and work it all into the garden. Once the grass grows you'd never know it was there. Maybe worth a try?

 

The rabbits and doves keep underneath the feeder clean.
The squirrel I was seeing in the fall is even non existent.

 

There is a lot going on in nature we are unaware of. About 15 years ago the the black squirrel range expanded about 50 miles north and we began to see them. By 2003 winter we had 10 under our feeder all winter. Then they disappeared. The snow might be a factor or predators like the fisher. Whatever happened they have be absent ever since.

 

Definitely a lack of birds, squirrels and chipmunks here too. I usually refill the tube feeder with sunflower seeds every few days. There is just little activity around. There are a few juncos around.

The squirrels and chipmunks are usually on cleanup duty here too. Even with fresh snow on the ground, I see no squirrel tracks.

The winter flocks of chickadees, titmice and nuthatches are missing. They usually travel in a loose group and visit the feeder a few times a day. We have hawk activity quite a bit, but the crows are usually in tow giving warning. I have only seen one chickadee carcass. It was torn up a bit so I am thinking hawk.

We have had a mild winter and I am wondering if there is enough forage about that they do not need the feeder. I usually see nuthatches caching extra seeds in bark on trees, bit I have not even seen that.

 

I considered the mild weather as well,, but a feeder is an easy meal with no work involved. I just don't get it . This is the least activity I've ever seen.

 

We haven't had the intense storms either where birds need to hunker down and conserve energy. There has been very little snow cover and plenty of open water. Various bushes have berries on them still.

 

I'll try and find out more but I heard a comment on CBC radio today to the effect that global warming is have a negative impact on songbird populations in North America. No doubt what we see individually results from a combination of factors interacting. However I would still like to know more about the big picture and trends. If I see any interesting insights I will pass along.

 

Here is a quick and pretty current read. It looks like others are taking notice too.

Thom Smith: Milder winter brings fewer birds to feeders

 

Have you tried a finch feeder with thistle. We have a constant stream of goldfinches on ours. And a few hairy and downy woodpeckers on the suet. Not so many juncos, nuthatches and chickadees the past week or so though.

 

No shortage of birds & squirrels here, just put a new suet block out and bought another 40lbs of sunflower seed.

 

warm days not much activity, a lot of warm days this winter. during the cold snaps, i fill all 5 feeders twice a day, 4 corn cobs and 2 suets, 50 plus birds, squirrels anytime i look out. oh and 2 hawks usually. find feathers and fur weekly.

 

What is thistle - a type of seed? They seem to like the sunflower seed just fine but the Blue Jays are so aggressive I am sort of rooting for the underdogs. We get a lot of purple finches but only a few goldfinches this time of year. We spread lots on the ground under the feeder for the finches and squirrels. Come summer we see quite a few goldfinches around the yard even though we don't feed in summer. All in all the birds seem to be doing ok far as we can tell.

 

Winter showed up and so did the birds. A few chickadees went through the privet hedge eating berries yesterday afternoon. We have finches on the feeder now and juncos below on cleanup.

 

That's good to hear. All is well.

 

Saw an interesting piece on the Toronto News tonight. There is a doc just released titled 'The Messenger' that delves into the decline of many songbird species. Google the title and there are quite a few pieces things to check out. Apparently there may be upwards of a million birds dying from colliding with windows in skyscrapers in Toronto alone. Imagine the entire east coast toll. Let's post on this thread started by Paul.