Where are you, Lydia? What state?

I haven't seen anything, but my feeders are buried under a ton of snow. We've got to do something better for next winter. Someone in MN (before I moved up here to the Keweenaw (MI UP) suggested jokingly that I could attach them on a flagpole and raise them as the snow piled up. He was joking, but I'm thinking I might just do something like that! I do think it would work, so long as we keep a path clear enough to be able to get to them.

Hi lydia,

I've had had a number of Pine Siskin at my feeder and also several Yellow Rump Warbler and I think I have had a Pine Warbler. We don't really get Pins Siskins and the YRW and the PW are seen more during the warm season. I am on the north east coast.

sooey

Funny you should ask, Lydia. I saw my first Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker this week. I, too, had to look him up in the field guide. It was exciting!

I'm in NE PA. Are you anywhere near me?

I'm in Missouri... an hour west of St. Louis. Not near PA, Alisande.

jel48 - I want to see your flagpole feeders if you make them! I can't imagine how the birds are surviving in the Northern states. Brrrrrr.....

Sooey - Lucky you, I don't think I've ever seen a pine siskin, although their range is pretty much all over the US.

I haven't noticed anything new at my feeder but we do have a stunning red tail hawk that's been sitting on the fence in my back yard. From that perch he can easily see the little birds at my feeder and he apparently enjoyed a rabbit last week. The only remnants left were tufts of hair and some frozen innards.

Mcmann, I'll bet the little birds at your feeder think the red tail hawk is stunning in the literal sense. :-)

I was out shopping today on my day off when I suddenly remembered that my feeders weren't completely full this morning, and the birds had probably emptied them. I abandoned my shopping list and headed home immediately. At these temperatures, birds need the fuel of food to keep them warm.

Sure enough, the feeders were empty. The birds got in 30 minutes of feeding after I filled them, and I sure hope that was enough. I'm worried about them tonight. One good thing was that they had plenty of suet left. I would hope that when they ran out of seed they'd move to the suet feeder.

The birds (Goldfinch) here come off and on all day. They fill up towards dark for their long night. They put themselves into a 'state' where everything slows down so they don't burn up their fuel over night.
If there is a hawk around, my birds take cover.
Leslie

Right now we are being invaded by hordes of red-winged blackbirds. This happens here about twice a year and lasts for about 3 weeks. They can strip all the feeders in nothing flat, then our regular poor birds have to come quickly when that whole horde takes off. Oh the sound of all those wings. We are going through sooooo much feed right now. I sure feel for all the little creatures in this bitter cold.

We have a red-bellied woodpecker that is feeding at our black oil sunflower feeder, and also pecking at the supporting post! We had two Eurasian collared doves (usually ground feeders) in the millet/sunflower/assorted seed feeder today, and the white-crowned sparrows are taking over! A kestrel has been hovering over the pasture, probably looking for mice and voles.
We are in Central Texas, and have some of the migrant birds from "Yankeedom" that spend the winter here.

Why, McMann--I got up this morning, looked out my kitchen door and saw one of our many red-tailed hawks enjoying his breakfast in my back yard. Unfortunately, he left a mess out there when he left. Well, we do have a lot of hawks in this area--one of the reasons the town's hs mascot is "the Hawk".

A couple of weeks back (I might have posted this), I had a tri-colored heron walking down my driveway at the 'other' house. Had never seen one before. Beautiful bird. And one day another hawk was sitting on the peak of my roof there. Honestly, we're pinching pennies this year, so I haven't done bird feeders, but the birds seem to be hanging around anyway.

I haven't seen anything unusal...we have dozens and dozens of gold finches here now...only here in winter, and always cardinals, chickadees, and titmice and blue jays. I also feed the crows, black birds, pigeons and doves and wood peckers.

We have had crows invade our area for about 10 years now, and I just don't see that many other birds. We do have lots of sparrows, but we used to have loads of doves. I see them only a couple of times a year. Luckily our hummingbirds are still here. I am trying to attract screech owls for the mouse population. I put up a screech owl house that I got for Christmas.

We've had a woodpecker visit our big tree in the backyard almost regularly since our snow last month. I've never seen one in our yard before.

Sheryl

Besides the regular birds at most people's... I get the large woodpeckers and the downy. The downy is really cute and not fearful of us. They like the suet. I also have a regular house finch that happens to have a completely white head. He's odd looking, very unusual, of course. Looks like a teeny bald eagle! I'll try to post pic later.

no..just my doves, and sparrows and the ones like sparrows...oh and the fat squirrels, lol...

We have't had any unusual ones here, but the blurbirds disappeared for a couple of months. They are back now and I'm so happy to see them. It's been colder here the past few days than it has been for over 6 years. I guess they came home to where they know their mommy will feed them mealy worms as often as they show up looking for them. The past two days they have been to the feeder looking for the worms four times each day. I've got to go to Memphis today to buy more worms.

Linda

Linda, I've missed seeing you around. I just asked about you over at the other forum.

Meal worms are very easy to raise. You need some wheat bran which you can get at health food stores or the cereal aisle in bigger supermarkets...or the feed store, if they will split a bag for you. They sell it by 50 lb. and you don't need that much. I use a plastic bucket with a lid...you could use smaller. Punch holes in the lid. Put in the meal worms and some slices of apple or peel or potato. You have to let some of them turn to beetles to reproduce, but it doesn't take long. Periodically, you need to replace the bran with fresh because it will get p*ssy smelling.

I raise them for my fish, and all the wild things love them.
I was trying to feed them to the armadillos I raised but too small and took too many....had to go to night crawlers for them.

The new creature here is a feral pig. She is some kind of "special pig", I think. The local hog hunter went to prison and I am sure he released her. She was red with horizontal white stripes...about the size of a cat when she first showed up. Now the size of a medium sized dog and all red. She is very skittish and only comes at night with the coons. I put out special treats for her. I hope she stays because I don't want anyone killing her.

I buy hen scratch for the doves, pigeons, crows and black birds...and scatter it all down my driveway, which is long and helps keep them out of the yard a little. The crows are here every morning tho, and clean up any food left over from the night before. A woman who works in the kitchen of a home for problem children brings all of her scraps to me and my friend who rehabs with me. We get tons of stuff...that we split. I had 14 pecan pies here and the raccoons had a party with them one night. Get a lot of beef, scrambled eggs, vegetables, chicken, fruit, melon, etc., which gives the possums a little more variety and bread which I give the horses for treats. It enables me to have a little extra money to buy the scratch, niger and sunflower seed.

The other day we had about 20 Bluebirds at our heated water
pan. We have cardinals, Blue jays, juncos, four different kinds of woodpeckers, Nuthatches, and our gray and little pine squirrels that come to the deck feeders every day,
they are about eating us out of house and home this winter.LOL

Azzalea, your story about the heron walking down your driveway reminded me of the day my daughter looked out the dining room window and and asked me what kind of a silly bird was walking through our yard? It was 2 turkeys and although we see them all the time out in the fields it was the first and only time we saw them in our yard. She was bout 10 at the time and ran outside to watch them as they ran down the middle of the street. She just couldn't understand why they didn't just fly away. And they did look rather silly.