I had a hummer fly over to investigate the racket the starlings were making at the suet feeder (and boy, were they ever noisy). I've had them check out the goldfinches at the thistle feeder. Another time, a chickadee wasn't doing a darn thing, just sitting on a branch in the maple tree, minding it's business. I saw something buzzing by it, side to side, it was just weird. My eyes finally adjusted to see that it was a hummer. Just recently, the hummer went over to the suet feeder (I have a seed cake in it currently) and was torturing a chickadee, and eventually chased it away. I have lots of birds at that suet feeder lately (woodpeckers, cardinals, sparrows), but for some reason, the chickadee's seem to be targeted by my hummers!

Jean, I am in Dawsonville. I have posted to my neighborhood news, told the local bird supply store which I am sure thrills them no end and not something they want to advertise, told my HOA board. I was sort of peeved because they made a joke of it and wondered if the birds had "gotten into some of those bad peanuts". Not funny. I have found a lot of dead birds as I am in the woods often and know where they roost. In one spot where the juncos roost there were dead juncos all over the ground. I have 4 juncos out of a zillion left, 2 siskens and 1 goldfinch. I tried to tell the neighborhood as nicely as possible to keep an eye on personal pets, it's contagious, children should not pick up dead birds, and gee, we should have major bug issues this summer if our insect eating permanent resident birds get killed. They are nice people but they just don't get that everything ties together. It's a non-issue to them and I am just the crazy wildlife lady who gets a pat on the head. I'm actually fairly middle class normal. I don't know what else to do. I'm not even some ecology wildlife fanatic, just a woman who grew up in deep woods. I guess it's part of my upbringing to be aware of nature and I just don't understand the blase attitude. Then they open the door and let their cat out. I don't mean to rant, it's just sad to me.

While I have Goldfinches year round, that might explain why I'm suddenly inundated with them. The weather has been awful here in MA. We've had bucketloads of rain and wind. The poor little things are out there looking absolutely soaked. I'm counting between 36 and 46 soaked little Goldfinches at my feeders at any given time.

I have had "trouble" with my thistle seed feeder this year too. They are NOT eating it. So, I dumped what was in the feeder, and put in "fresh" that had been stored in a sealed plastic bin. The finches are still not frequenting the tube feeder. What's up with that?! I bought a new bag of nyger seed, but I seriously hate to open it until the last batch is gone. It's too expensive! I also have not seen as many gold finches in my yard as I normally do. Are they just not as plentiful this year? I see them drinking from the birdbath and sometimes on the No-No black sunflower seed feeder, but not on the tube feeder.