Great pics patsi! I too have had minimal hummer activity. In the past, regardless of the racket the starlings made at the suet feeder, or the large number of goldfinches at my feeder and on the plants, I'm only seeing a hummer, once a week IF I'M LUCKY! I've only seen one male and one female. The last few years, I'd see at least one once a day. This year it's definitely killing me, not seeing them daily. I've had a robin nest in the forsynthia, which is only a few feet away from my feeder, and that never bothered my hummers. I haven't even seen a monarch butterfly yet! Overall, butterfly activity is alot less as well. Few cabbage whites, sparse Eastern Swallowtails, although I have seen a few Black Swallowtails that were kind enough to leave me a load of caterpillars, most of which have been eliminated, probably by wasps. I have already released 2 butterflies & have 5 more chrysalids & 2 more cats still feeding. At least the mosquito population is up (yes, sarcasm), but it's keeping the bats happy, which too, appear to have had their numbers dwindle too :(

Carol Oh my yes....I had forgotten about those egrets until you mentioned it. It was horrible and right across the street from an elementary school. Really was quite unbelievable that there could be so many of the nasty things. So no, the grackles are not as bad as that. But there are more of them in my area than any time before. I truly dislike them. Randy If I didn't live where I do I might be tempted to use like methods of grackle control but would likely end up in jail....haha. However they don't roost on my property they just visit and fly through all time. I really don't know where they are roosting. But don't have large enough trees on our property. I need to post another tread about the potential problem we do have here in our neighborhood and even worse than birds. COYOTES! Believe it or not my across the street neighbor saw two of them right up on her patio looking in the door recently. And her husband has seen the pair two different times with the neighbor's cat cornered! Now this is really crazy living where we live! G.M.

I have found 9-pound bags of a mix of mostly millet with some sunflower seed and, I think, safflower seed, at a dollar-type store here called Big Lots. $7 per bag. Birds gobble it up in winter, but in the winter they'll eat anything; in the spring they are picky, kicking out the milo for the pigeons and doves, so I stop feeding them and concentrate on hummingbirds and, this year, suet for Ladderback and Downy woodpeckers. Also I have nyger thistle feeders (both metal mesh feeder and sock feeder) out for our sweet, tiny lesser goldfinches. To complete my first post in this forum, I spotted and got pictures of a male Northern Cardinal this morning, a rare sighting for our area (Albuquerque). A similar male bird (the same one??) was reported a few miles further north back in February. I also photographed a rare Vermillion Flycatcher in April. Maybe more birds are moving into my state -- and I'll have figure out how to feed them if they visit my apartment complex :)

Thank you for responding, it's been a heavy hearted day. I did take some pics, then I got some waterproof foil tape and wrapped it loosely around the trunk, only adhering the tape back onto itself (so no adhesive on trunk.) We also cut up some holographic poster board into strips and hung strips around the tree...that's supposed to scare the birds off. I took down the feeders completely, with a very heavy heart and will put them back up in a few days....on another area of the property. Unfortunately, I also have another new tree in the backyard which also has lichen growing on it, so I don't want to put those feeders near there. The feeders won't be anywhere in my viewing area, which is a big bummer for me. We couldn't get the reflective tape or holographic strips and into the upper 3rd of the tree and we saw a woodpecker land...however, the bird left soon thereafter, since there was no food around. At the same time, we saw a male and female Baltimore Oriole land on the tree and I just about swooned...we have not seen them before! I do think I could get some orange out for them and the woodpeckers would not be interested, right?