Where are all my birds?

[Jstpssng]

^^ I don't wash MY dishes that often.

You need to get a dog. Name her "dishwasher."

 

[ruffdog]

In the last few days we have seen lots of "summer" birds fly through here. Robins, red winged blackbirds, yellow finch, and some cardinals are showing up. The birds eat like crazy at the feeder and then they are gone....strange. I'm wondering if the drought here pushed the birds more north and now that winter is coming, they are racing to head south?

 

[Diggin It]

Saw the first flock of Geese a while ago. Heard 'em first of course.

 

[Diggin It]

I'm wondering if the drought here pushed the birds more north and now that winter is coming, they are racing to head south?

There might be something to that. I'm back to 4 pair of Cardinals, some Bluejays, Woodpeckers and a bunch of smaller grey and brown varieties.

 

[skipmarcy]

We too, here in TN are getting a few back as well that had been totally missing for a couple of months. Cardinals, wrens, chickadees, finches all coming back in smaller numbers. Mourning doves and blue jays are the only ones that hadn't gone missing the past couple of months.

 

[rademamj1]

Well lots of bird activity today in Texas. Suddenly a flock of perhaps over fifty Blue Jay's and even some Cardinals showed up today. Emptying my fourteen feeders in record time. Refilled after lunch, and everything was gone in under an hour. I guess long range migration makes for hungry birds. If you watch them closely, they have sentries out, and take turns feeding. My cat, returning to the barn, passed the line of feeders and was swooped by some diving Blue Jay's. He took of running away at full speed, which was the desired outcome by the Blue Jays.

These birds are definitely on migration. And will hang around for a few days at my feeders before moving on. But they seem to be showing up here in Texas, about 2 or 3 weeks later this year.

 

[ruffdog]

A whole mob of sparrows stayed for 2 days and are now gone. We will have nice weather next week which will allow more time for our bird friends to get out of the cold zones. I'm expecting with the snow north of me, it will help push them south.

 

[Oaktree]

These birds are definitely on migration. And will hang around for a few days at my feeders before moving on. But they seem to be showing up here in Texas, about 2 or 3 weeks later this year.

Didn't know jays or cardinals migrated. Only see cardinals here in the winter, but jays are year round.

Finally put up the feeders the weekend before Thanksgiving once I was pretty sure the bears were all in hibernation. Other than a couple woodpeckers and a few chickadees didn't really start getting any birds until this week. Not as many as some years, but in the past couple days I've seen juncos, nuthatches and finches in addition to the chickadees & woodpeckers. Well, that and a gazillion turkeys.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

A flock of about 50 doves launched from trees over my head yesterday. I was startled. It was like thunder! Birds at the feeder are going through about 3 lbs. of food a day. They seem to eat in shifts. I mix a variety of seeds, from sunflower and peanut down to nyjer thistle, and each species cleans up their favorite.

 

[Diggin It]

I hope these little flutterers appreciate the 120 pounds of seed i bought them yesterday.

 

[deserteagle71]

Almost no birds at all for some reason all spring, summer and fall this year. Then a few weeks ago they started arriving, now I'm got hundreds hanging around my feeders and I'm wondering where they all came from all of a sudden. Wonder if it is due to the change in the weather - it was very dry and warm all year till just recently. Now temperatures are not getting out of the 20s and snow is falling every day.

 

[rademamj1]

Going through an average of 250lbs each week of bird feed. Squirrels and lots of rabbits are now joining in on the buffet from the ground feeders. Got 18 feeders reloaded this morning, and almost all is gone by evening. Nobody, birds, Squirrels and even the rabbits are showing any fear when I walk nearby, indicating they are all so very hungry, their need for food outweighs their fear of man.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Going through an average of 250lbs each week of bird feed. Squirrels and lots of rabbits are now joining in on the buffet from the ground feeders. Got 18 feeders reloaded this morning, and almost all is gone by evening. Nobody, birds, Squirrels and even the rabbits are showing any fear when I walk nearby, indicating they are all so very hungry, their need for food outweighs their fear of man.

They know a food bucket when they see one. When you are out a lot, you become one more species in the landscape. When I bought this place, one of the first things I did was plant 14,000 fir seedlings by hand. After a couple of weeks, the wildlife ignored me.

 

[Torvy]

The circle of life. Putting out bird feeders artificially increases the numbers of certain birds. It also brings them into closer proximity with each other. Mother Nature has a way of returning things to a balance. More predators. More disease spread.

My parents feed birds, too. I never understood it. Get some binoculars and/or a good camera and walk in nature. If you just want to see birds up close, go to an aviary or from your living room, watch a bird video.

Humans are strange animals. The hubris that we have assuming that the critters would all die if we didn't feed them. Don't get me wrong, I like songbirds just fine...I just let wild critters eat what nature provides.

 

[mikester]

Next spring check out how many birds are in the fields after the seeders have freshly planted the neonicotinoid coated seeds.

 

[Oaktree]

The circle of life. Putting out bird feeders artificially increases the numbers of certain birds. It also brings them into closer proximity with each other. Mother Nature has a way of returning things to a balance. More predators. More disease spread.

My parents feed birds, too. I never understood it. Get some binoculars and/or a good camera and walk in nature. If you just want to see birds up close, go to an aviary or from your living room, watch a bird video.

Humans are strange animals. The hubris that we have assuming that the critters would all die if we didn't feed them. Don't get me wrong, I like songbirds just fine...I just let wild critters eat what nature provides.

I agree with you to a point. We do have a couple feeders, and enjoy watching the birds come to it but don't overdo it. I don't go thru anywhere near the feed some of you here do...I might use a 50lb of sunflower seed in a winter, rarely more. Feeders come down end of March and don't go back up until the bears are in hibernation in the late fall.
We have a neighbor who gets waay more into bird feeding. She puts seed on the ground for the wild turkeys. Of course then they come over here and scratch MY yard all up too. *&%^# turkeys.

Speaking of turkeys, we noticed this year a couple that were limping. One's foot was all black & nasty looking. Wife called fish & game thinking there might be some sort of disease causing this. An agent came by, said all he could think was that they might have fallen out of a tree & injured their foot. Never seen this before.

 

[Diggin It]

Back to about 10--12 pairs of Cardinals.

Seed is nuts though, but picked up some more suet today.

 

[Jstpssng]

Seed is nuts

You are right, yet it takes a long time for the seed to grow a tree mature enough to produce another nut/seed... Sorry, I couldn't resist.
I put out a bird feeder years ago so that my dog could watch them while I was gone. She almost destroyed the window trying to get at them. Houdini that she was, I'm lucky that she didn't just unlock the sash and raise it.

Now, with all of the avian disease I want them as far away from my flock as possible. My entire strategy for the last 10+ years has been based on free ranging poultry, and I can't afford to have Avian Flu wipe everything out.