Here is the culprit. She appeared to be eating a suet cake that the woodpeckers had trashed.

I might have to do the same.

We had a MB on year that we called Sarge. What a bossy, loud thing he was! His primary interest was the suet cakes but he remained in the back yard just to be obnoxious after I removed any kind of food.

He seemed to change his evil ways in the Spring, however, and we haven't had such a cranky MB again.

I'm glad to see that other people name their lovely wild birds at the feeder!

We have a female cardinal named Ray. That stands for red, aluminum and yellow, which are the bands on her legs.

She visits daily.

We also had a chickadee for many years, who was called. Mr. Red, for his double red banded leg. He's been gone for awhile now, but I think he was very old for a little birdie.

My husband named our most frequent mockingbird visitor Car Alarm. One year, a neighbor went on a vacation. His car, parked on the street near our house, has an especially obnoxious alarm that malfunctioned. It went off numerous times, day and night, for about 12 days. Even with ear plugs, it permanently damaged my hearing. It also made quite an impression on Car Alarm. We have heard an encore every mating season four years running....and counting.

B.J. (Brave Jay) was a scrub jay that would take peanuts from hand. I miss him! Another scrub jay lost all of his tail feathers for a while. We named him Lucky. Bill was a scrub jay that had only half an upper mandible.

Inspector Nut (below) was a Nuttall's woodpecker that would resize the entrance holes of every one of our birdhouses, then choose his favorite. Every evening at sunset, he would fly in and enter that house to roost for the night.

If you see Mrs. Cardinal feeding, look above her and you may find Mr. Cardinal standing watch. After she has had a few morsels, he will then feed. My Cardinals have a habit of feeding late in the day and into almost dark. All other birds have put themselves away, but these guys tank for the night at the latest possible time.

A few times before our big snow last week, at times I had a goodly number of birds, but this weeks, I'm back to just a few. its almost as though they have moved on or something has happened to the bird population.