Interesting about the shells! I'm sure I've seen shells in open places before too. I have at least 4 breeding pairs of goldfinches visiting the nyjer feeder now. I've seen 6 at once of which 4 were males, and 4 females together at a different time so who knows how many are around. I found a pair of Grey Catbirds in my cedar this morning. They looked like they were building a nest, although I doubt it would be in my cedar because it's pretty big and open.

Hi Kids, Happy New Year to you all. I saw my first Hawk in the yard today. I think it was a Northern Goshawk. I got a few pictures of it which I will post as soon as I am able. It was beautiful. It sounds like we are all enjoying the birds. The worms I always kept on hand for the Blues were live mealworms. I know you can get the freeze dried, but I have always used the live ones. They are not gross at all. They are small, only about an inch, dry and easy to handle...no slime. I order them on line and they arrive in a bag, inside a box. I take them out, put them in a shallow plastic container that has a lid and, put them in the lower part of the refrig. They last for a long time. I would even feed them apples so they stayed plump and happy. I think I got 5,000 for about $15. The Blues LOVED them. I was lucky enough to have a Flicker visit during my PFW count this past week. I was so excited. We seem to have a mini flock of 3 that now visit the suet feeder just about every day. They are so beautiful. I'll try to post the pictures of the Hawk. I would like to know if you all agree wtih my ID of it as a Goshawk. sooey

I love your birding equipment reviews! I also saw the spotting scope/cameras advertised in Wildird, but I've not yet taken the time to "scope out the scopes" to compare their photo quality with regular DSLRs. As expensive as lenses are, the scope/camera combo should save photographers thousands of dollars, if the quality is comparable.

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.