you are so lucky to have so many birds. I don't have ANY BIRDS, NONE!
my thistle sock hangs abandoned and just rotts away, my black sunflower seeds start to sprout all alone and unwanted and the cracked corn will turn into popcorn soon

Evelyn :*(

nice pictures :)

do you buy thistle sock, or make it yourself? I would love to try one of these :)

Olya

Hi Evelyn, I dont know why you dont have the birds either. Your yard has soooo many plants for the birds to feel safe in, it makes no sense. They are out there when the dog is out and walking around as well as me too. I will send some over.

Hi Olya,

I bought this sock but will make em in the future. It came preloaded with seed and I got it at W-mart.

I also filled a feeder with the thistle and they were all over it too. {{gwi:778573}}

okay. So, I'm jealous. (except that I do have some painted buntings!! ...guess there's no reason to be jealous.) Neat, Tony..i LOVE those lil goldfinches...only had a couple pass by this year. ..maybe there's still time.......

Hi, Tony...definitely goldfinches! I was thrown by your term "lime green" as I see them as pale yellow and tan at this point. Also, I was trying to picture "racing stripes" on their heads. Haha. I haven't seen any goldfinches here this year. My big ol' hawk living in my oak tree has chased all the birds away.

If your goldfinches stay with you long enough, you will see the yellow spread until they are in their breeding plumage. Then they will look like this:

Glad the thistle seed is working for you. That's their favorite thing in the world, I think!

Marcia

Hi Tony,
That is so "tweet" of you to post the pictures.
Now that you have a new camera we hope that you post lots of pictures.
Felix

Hi Marcia,

The lime green kinda shows up in the first set of pics, on the heads, they were greener and a much lime-ier shade that was a couple weeks ago.

I have never seen a GOLD or bright yellow gold finch here before. Now I am looking very forward to it.

I need to see if there is some sort of housing they may be interested in that can be easily built.

I moved the one feeder closer to the house only to move it from the sprinkler spray and they were right on it in a flash. They are definitely brave.

BETH, I am jealous of your buntings!!!

Evelyn - I feel your pain. I have no birds anymore either. Just a few remaining doves that the hawks haven't eaten yet. My thistle is rotting too. :( I've cut way back on seed purchase as only the squirrels seem to eat it.

Last year, I actually had one Indigo Bunting for about 4 days.

I have to wonder about the birds of prey impact. Is it that they are making a come back or the territory has been so destroyed that they are adapting to urban life?

I forgot to mention that on Christmas day, while I was driving on I-375 to go downtown St. Pete, a Bald Eagle flew right in front of the path of my car. No kidding. I almost hit the darn thing he flew so close. This is the first time I have seen a Bald Eagle in St. Pete.

My little backyard birdies are avoiding me however.

Our HA hired some butchers to "clean up" the preserve behind us. Instead of removing the exotics, they chopped down all the vines and sawgrass and trimmed a lot of the trees -- which cut down on the number of birds in our area, considerably.
Also,I am plagued by night marauders. Almost certainly raccoons, but very clever ones. They take the thistle socks and suet blocks away with them, and they lift the "squirrel-proof" feeder up into the tree, upside down, so that all the seed pours out. They also knocked over my shepherd's hook, smashing my hummingbird feed all to pieces. I want to see the birds at my feeders, but I am spending a fortune feeding raccoons!

yessss, that may be it - I do see an osprey every day.
Last year at this time i had Mockingbirds, a cardinal couple, some warblers, a finch or two and a nesting mourning doves.
I am hoping the hummers will come, I had so many in 2007.

Tony, keep taking pictures :-)

Evelyn

I tried bird feeders but how do you keep the squirrels from stealing all the food?

Tony, we used to have the gold finches all the time in Michigan. they are truly magnificient when they go gold!

I still have my pair of cardinals every day two, three times a day. Other than Mockers and doves, I get a gaggle of gackles. Wish we had more trees here to attract more variety.

Tony I'm envious of your gold finches. I have a thistle feeder out but no takers. The red shouldered hawk has finally moved on. The blue jays are back, the cardinals keep coming along with the doves. But no finches. I'm going to look at PetSmart for thistle socks, for some reason both WMarts here don't carry them.

Great pics! Keep them coming.

rsangel64 - I have a bunch of squirrels around that want the seed too but at this point they are doing me a favor by eating the stuff off the ground that these finch slobs fling everywhere. If the squirrels get up on the feeder, then they will be dealt with.

Soooo... maybe scatter something the squirrels can eat off the ground which will perhaps keep em off the feeders.

Cindy, I too have a family of cardinals which come several times a day, pretty much at the same times too. They seem to be pretty good about sharing THEIR feeder with the finches and bluejays. The mockingbirds eat apples I put out there for em. The doves dont seem to bother anyone, they just hang out the longest.

I never used to have birds out back, but thanks to all the folks showing off their backyard feathered friends I was determined to see if I could attract em too. Sooo far sooooo good.

Marion, try the big K or Tarjet. I looked online at petS and their cost was double! Seeing as you are into sewing, make one and just buy seeds. That would be the BEST thing. I bet yours would be WAYYYYYYY fancy and the birds would love em.

Tony, goldfinches are just passing through. They winter here, and are currently beginning their migration back north. Most years, they are long gone before they develop their yellow breeding coloration, but the last two years, I've had some stick around long enough to be in full breeding plumage before they left for their more northerly nesting grounds.

I hope you'll get to see them in that coloration, as it is breathtaking, but you won't get them to use a nest box, because they will wait until they are back on their breeding territory.

If you are really, really lucky, you might see some buntings show up with the goldfinches. They often travel together.

As for the birds of prey disrupting feeding patterns, this is a completely normal thing. Hawks are often seen in suburbs and cities, and when they hang out for awhile, the songbirds lay low. Eventually, the hawks will move on, and the little guys will come back. We just have to be patient.
(Yesterday, I actually saw a lone chipping sparrow at my feeding tray! Hope that's a sign of good things to come.)

Marcia

I have never been able to keep a birdfeeder because of the squirrels. They destroy every feeder I put up, doesn't matter what its made of, how its made, if its squirrel proof or not. I finally gave up, and its a shame because we have tons of birds around here...cardinals, doves, bluebirds...

bihai

how about relocating the squirrels?

I haven't had many birds this winter either, but the squirrels are taking over the neighborhood. As the squirrel population increased, so did the hawk and eagle population. We also have a neighbor's outdoor cat who is everything you can hate about outdoor cats. She kills the birds, climbs my patio screen, torments my indoor cats and uses my garden as her little box. The only thing I don't have is birds!

Kate - did you happen to see the front page in the paper today? Story was titled 'RAT out bad neighbors with click of a mouse'

rat on their cat

check it out!

Here is a link that might be useful: Rat on your neighbor here

Tony - thanks for posting the pics - I've been wondering what that bird is!

bihai - here's a pic of a homemade squirrel baffle that's been stopping all the squirrels in our neighborhood. What you can't see is how the bucket was cut along the back (allowing you to slip it onto the pole).

We now actually look forward to seeing squirrels as they climb the pole and "ring the bell" as we call it - they go up into the bucket, bang around a bit, then slide down fireman style.

We live on 5 wooded acres that back up to a huge nature preserve, on a scenic road where almost every house is also on a 3-7 acre wooded plot unless its in a gated subdivision where all the trees were removed. There are literally thousands of squirrels here. There is a large population of red tailed hawks, peregrines, owls and other predatory birds, but they don't keep the squirrels in check. I guess its pretty naturally balanced...there's enough food to go around for everyone so no one starves and everyone's happy (except those of us who can't keep birdfeeders, LOL)

I tried the method of feeding the squirrels on the ground but they are greedy and aren't satisfied with that.

We also have 2 yard dogs, one chases squirrels (but has never caught one) and they don't keep them off of stuff either.

I guess I will just have to look at other folk's photos of their birdfeeders and live vicariously...LOVE those green parrots!