I feed the birds all year sort of. They start with cleaning off the sunflowers that they plant the previous fall and continue to clean off the grasses, berries, and corn that I sometimes grow just for them. Of course I have water out all the time for them and a heated dish in the winter. I feed the big birds cat food with bread or cereal in it. They get any left overs when I cook a turkey or ham. I make my own concoction of peanut butter, prunes, hulled sunflower seeds, rolled oats, millet, black oil sunflower and a few other things they like to pick at. I buy millet, black oil sunflower and striped sunflower by the sack and keep it in large bins in the hall along with peanuts,hulled sunflower seeds, oats and rabbit pellets. Once in a while I will give them a treat of meal worms from the petstore or cut up fruit. And sometimes I will get a seed bell or spray millet just to watch them. I also ground up dry catfood last year and put it in the feeder. The little birds get much needed fat and protein to keep warm that way. I have the usual black and white feather dusters, the blue jays, lots of chickadees (black capped and boreal), nuthatches (red and white breasted), woodpeckers, northern flickers, juncos, finches, sparrows, the odd grosbeaks, waxwings, and redpolls and I even had a kestral last spring. Not many crows unless it is a really warm winter. My computer is in the corner of the front bedroom where there are the old corner windows. I feed the birds from about 5 feeders and baskets hanging from the big white spruce about 2 feet from the corner of the house here. I feed the rabbits under the tree and the dish feeders on the fence from big heavy ceramic dishes. It is such a routine for me to feed the birds after I feed the dogs on winter mornings. My neighbours are used to the crazy lady in her fleece pjs out feeding the birds every morning and the dogs go out and wait by the fence for the maggies to drop food for them. Quite the scene to watch! The maggies are very comical and they literally talk to me. I can't stand to see anything go hungry or be cold and the little birds seem to like to feast under the protective branches of this 50 foot spruce. My neighbour across the street says she likes to sit with her coffee in the morning and watch the bunnies and birds eating. And that reminds me: Must find a bale of hay for the bunnies. Last year I fed a cat all winter but coudln't catch her. She left me mice most mornings under the kennel....... I hope we have a mild winter or at least get some snow. It is bitterly cold without a little insulation. Ginny

Well, this is my first post to this forum, and I'm glad it is just a couple steps over from the Gardening Forums! You folks further north than Mobile Alabama can look for a big flock of goldfinch to show up, because they left here last Friday (for the most part) all fat and sassy. I've fed the birds all last summer and all this winter, and somehow they spread the word until we had a huge flock at our feeders in a residential surburban area between Mobile Bay and Dog River. I know it was several hundred coming and hanging out in our leafless river birch and vine-covered privacy fences. Black oil sunflower seed consumption for January was MORE than 4 35-lb bags. We have cardinals here who never migrate, and with mature trees and huge azalea and camellia shrubbery all around, they find cover and nesting spots. One cardinal nested just outside my study window in a camellia, so I watched the male feed his babies....never saw the female do that, she was suspicious of ME. And for about 2 weeks now, the pair of bluebirds have been keeping an eye on their nest box, so I'm gathering fresh pine needles for them to have an easy job of building a new nest. We also have hawks here. And owls. And cats, which I hiss at and they run--my two dachshunds know the hiss denotes a CAT, and they go running to add to the pandemonium. If you don't have large shrubbery yet, think about growing some vines over an arbor, even annual vines can give shelter, shade, and sometimes food. Hyacinth beans, scarlet runner beans, morning glories, sweet peas, green (veggie) peas are all good annuals. The sound of running water, or a bucket dripping into a birdbath, that will give them a reason to come around when it is hot and dry. I try to locate my enticements where I can see the activity from inside. I'm hoping to again host a nesting pair of Carolina wrens for the 4th consecutive year in a pig flower pot (containing a spiny aloe vera) sitting on the deck railing right outside the back door. So far the "Pig Family" has raised 5 x 3 = 15 babies in that pig pot. Apparently they feel secure because other birds do not tolerate our closeness so well. Instead, the Pig Family fusses at US for intruding on their property. Love the birds. Love gardening. They go well together.

I'm another raptor-watcher that agrees this is certainly an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter tail, grey nape, red iris, among other field marks). I have a brand new Crossley Raptor ID Guide (Crossley/Liguori/Sullivan) that indicates the most recent range map for Sharpies includes southern Saskatchewan for the winter and further north in Saskatchewan for the summer. Sharpies are rarely encountered during the summer so it would actually be more likely to see one during the cold season (based on their remote breeding locations). I checked eBird and found one Sharpie sighting reported this winter near Saskatoon. So I don't believe it's very common in your range to see one. On a side note, Merlins are not backyard feeder visitors. Very cool sighting on the Sharpie! Bummer about the Redpoll. This post was edited by TMFF on Thu, Mar 28, 13 at 9:49

Thanks for posting. Those perky red polls are hard to photograph because they are never still. When we moved into our new house in 1976, we saw read polls on occassion and then as other subdivisions sprang up around our little town, the red polls disappeared. I haven't seen any in 15 years. Another factor may have been a wipeout. About 15 years ago, a bird flu decimated our sparrow population that winter and they have not rebounded. It is only now that I see an occassional sparrow at the feeder. That disease may have wiped the red polls as well.