Claire, I am not sure I've ever heard the term cute associated with starlings . . . ;>) Jane, that series of robin photos is absolutely stunning. I am always interested in the content of photos, but this month there have been a bunch of really lovely photos as far as composition and clarity. I'll submit some photos which are a bit more basic than artistic. I'm not sure how Claire gets such stunning turkey photos. Ours are very wily, and if I open a window or door to take a photo, they jog off in the opposite direction to the nearest shelter. So mine are taken from inside the house, and often through a combination of screen and glass. During the recent snowstorm, our local flock scooted across the road and down into the cornfield. I managed to catch a couple of photos before they disappeared into the evergreens to find shelter. They were moving much faster than usual; definitely looked unhappy about the weather. Arriving down the access drive into the field: From Turkeys in the snow December 27, 2012 And halfway across, scuttling rapidly towards shelter: From Turkeys in the snow December 27, 2012

As someone said much earlier in this post, insect-eating birds don't go for birdseed, except for the chickadees. For insect-eating birds, you want a birdbath, and suet. Many more birds will use the birdbath than either suet or birdseed. You will want a shallow birdbath with a rough inner surface, your classic concrete birdbath. Birds won't go in water that's more than a couple inches deep, and they want a rough surface so they don't slip. These are not the easiest to maintain - I've seen birdbaths on the market that are deep and smooth and people think they're better because they won't have to fill them so often, and they'll be easier to clean, but the birds won't touch them. I get birds at my birdbath year round, even when it's been raining for weeks. Robins, jays, towhees, finches, sparrows, warblers, chickadees, bushtits, juncos, you name it. Place it a few feet from shrubbery or a tree, so they can see any cats coming and dive for cover. I love watching them, especially in late summer when the new fledgling birds are learning how to use the birdbath. For suet feeding I have what's called a 'crow cage' from Wild Birds Unlimited. It only allows smaller birds to get to the suet. Means the towhees and woodpeckers can't get it either, but it's necessary to keep the crows and starlings off. I have the suet cage itself suspended about an inch from the bottom of the cage so the flickers can hang from the bottom and reach the suet. The starlings can just barely do that too, but it's hard enough for them that they rarely do so. Ask to see their suet cage setups that keep the starlings off, and you'll see what I mean. I also take down the suet when the starlings are nesting, usually April, and don't put it back up again until they're done in summer. To minimize seed waste I buy straight black oil sunflower seed. It's more expensive than the mixes, but the birds toss out much of what's in the mixes.

I was living in town when Mr. Walski was giving talks about the wild turkey project. Although the article describes the CT River valley, I think there were other release sites that weren't mentioned. I thought our town was one of them because of the corn, apples and water. We don't have apple orchards any more but although we are down to one dairy farm, a neighbor has quite a few beef cows (and lots of manure). We used to enjoy seeing the turkeys roost in pines along a corn field. As day was ending, they would gather and one by one fly up into the trees. The cattle farmer made improvements to the field since years of not keeping up with things let trees encroach on the field. About 100 feet of pines were cut back. There are plenty more pines but too much heavy equipment activity. The heavy equipment is now parked a distance away and finally we saw three male turkeys in our yard and then exploring the corn field. Last winter we counted as many as 60 coming down from the pines to see what they could get in our yard before making the tour to other places. I don't recalled seeing blue birds in winter before but this year we probably have 8. I counted 4 females and one male picking up suet scraps and thistle seed. We do not have nesting boxes up so I have no idea where they nest but it is probably somewhere behind our house. Thanks for posting the wonderful pictures. A friend has been getting some good shots at the Nashua airport and posting them on facebook.

Great photos everyone! I had about 30 turkey's come visit two days ago. Now, normally that is not that original, but about a half dozen decided to get up onto my back deck and perch on the railing and table. One of them was about four feet away from where I was sitting in the house and I'm pretty sure was trying telepathically to tell me to put out more seed. They were very rambunctious pecking at one another and jumping straight up into the air right in front of my den window. It was hilarious! Love those big birds. Claire, I'm not sure they've ever been on the roof here. We've had a handful of vultures land once in a while, but never turkeys. This morning, I'm so very certain we saw a Carolna Wren. My folks live in NC, so I'm keen on what they look like. I looked up house wren just in case, and it was not a match. I was very surprised to see one. Should I be? Has anyone else seen them in the winter? This was a first for me. I know they can handle cold temps, but this threw me off a bit.