i think it's the wet snowy days that are keeping them here. they usually move back up into the mountains in march but the mountains are way over normal with snow depth and it's been colder than normal between storms too. about 2 foot of snow in the fields next to me on the ground with just a few bare spots under some trees.

the feeders are only 5 foot or less from the window and as long as i don't make noise or go outside they don't ever seem to see me. The main problem i have is the area is in shade about half the time and the pictures are not light or clear unless they are in the sun. I am still trying to get more of the woodpeckers to show up when the sun is shining as i get lots of poor pictures, And i guess i have taken hundreds of junco pictures and only save about one out of a dozen. At least there are a lot of the litle birds around this time of year. Juncos and finches and chikadees and sparrows.

i get juncos eating from my feeders all the time. I had purposely put oversize bases on several feeders to catch seed lots of birds were scattering. as long as the juncos can perch on the bases they are regullar visiters all winter long. i also have a couple pine rounds about 3 foot tall that i stand on end and put feed on and they are regulars to the rounds that a neighbor calls my stumps.

the sparrows don't show up here but when its stormy and usually after daylight. the juncos are often here before it get light even and stay off and on all day till dark. the sparrows show up in flocks fly in and eat in a hury and are gone and might not be back for days. Only one scraggly ground squirrel here and he seldom climbs anything and stays on the ground mostly and has a tunnel under a shrub in a neighbors yard. Have not seen him since it started snowing. the juncos favor the cracked corn and millet and the sparrows the millet and milo.