I love all these photographs, I can look at them nonstop all day long. I live out in Western MA and have a few feeding stations up, one that contains BOSS and Safflower seeds, a thistle sock and a double suet feeder. Lately my feeders are packed with different song birds, chickadees, titmice, pine siskins, finches, white breasted nuthatches, dark eyed juncos, male and female cardinals, although I believe there's only one male cardinal that I keep seeing and along with the two females. I also get occasional house sparrows but lately, they seem to be staying away. I have a bluebird house up in hopes of luring a pair to my yard to raise a family but I'm not keeping my hopes up. Yesterday I was home for the day and sitting in my living room and out my bay window in the front across the street, were two Pileated Woodpeckers, the first I've ever seen. They were working on this one tree for about 2-3 hours, one on each side of the tree and they managed to do a fantastic job carving out a couple of cavities, I was very impressed at how hard they worked. Only wish my camera had a better lense. I've had red bellied, downie and hairy woodpeckers at my suet feeders but never was lucky enough to witness a pileated so close and two for that matter, it was very exciting. Please keep the pictures coming, I so enjoy looking at them and love to hear that there are bluebirds not to far from where I live. Fingers are crossed that they come to visit my yard in the spring. Linda

I also had tons of Pine siskins visit my WNY birdfeeders this winter. 2-3 times, mixed in with the P.siskins were 1 or 2 Common Redpolls. I also had White-winged Crossbills in my brushy area pinetrees, eating pinecone seeds, the first time that has ever happened since I have been birdwatching. Both siskins and redpolls are irruptive species for WNY. This year, the pinecone seed crop in SE Canada was poor, so the siskins and redpolls and crossbills moved further south into the USA, in search of better food sources. They will go back up north to breed. A few straggler Pine siskins are still here, but most have already left WNY Gail R (WNY)

Well, I live pretty close to the Montana border - I can see Chief Mountain - and it was a treat to have the redpolls around as well as some pine siskins and a white winged crossbill but this year all birds seem to be pretty much reduced in numbers. I feel your pain!!!!!

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.