I live in the NW corner of Pennsylvania. I started filling my feeders in mid November this year. I used to have a lot of birds, but not so many this year. I have a small flock of sparrows, a few chickadees, juncos and nuthatches and the occasional pigeon or blue jay. I always had cardinals and I only saw one male on just one day this year. I thought maybe my neighbor had better food but maybe it's something else. I do put out suet cakes and have several woodpeckers who visit.

My neighbor feeds the birds year round. I only do that for hummers. Our safflower seed feeders go up in December and come down early March. Not seeing a decline in numbers. Lots of cardinals, chickadees, Carolina wrens, house finches, titmice, and mourning doves.

Cindy, where are you located? I'm in NE Pennsylvania. Sounds like we're in a similar situation, Rose.

We feed year round, seed & suet. Fortunately we don't have to worry about bears!! Just raccoons & possums.

I love to watch them flit about outside. Juncos, Tufted Titmouse, 3 or 4 kinds of woodpeckers, nuthatch, chickadees, cardinals, wrens, doves, Euro doves, fat as pigeons. Occasionally we have the Cedar Wax wings, they are so beautiful.

Eastern blue birds hang out all winter too, not so much on the feeders, but on the bird bath.

This year we've had more sparrows & blue jays than ever!

Today I "chased" off some huge crows off the suet. They're so noisy, when I'm home I always know when they're out there.

I feed year round except for hummers, which migrate down where Cindy lives and further south. I switched the type of seed recently and that was a mistake. I think it is either clogging my feeder (which I clean religiously) or maybe the birds don’t like the change. I guess it could be that the birds just aren’t around as much. I still see plenty of cardinals, chickadees, titmouse, Carolina wrens, finches, including tons of goldfinches, woodpeckers, bluebirds, and doves. There are also some that migrate through here that I will glimpse now and then if I’m lucky.

i hope you get your birds back soon. Have you thought about bringing in your feeders at night? I believe LynnNM (another forum) had to do that due to problems in her neighborhood with bears.

Alisande, I had to look up the Evening Grosbeak. Such a pretty bird!

I hope they find their way back to your feeders soon.

I feed all year round with suet too. I have resident cardinal pairs, titmouse, juncos, woodpeckers, doves, song sparrows, catbirds (in season), wrens, and purple finches. (And a gazillion squirrels)

Something similar happened in the area of my previous house south of Houston where the birds disappeared for a significant time, during a time they had been present in years past.

Like you, I stop feeding when the bears emerge from hibernation. I have 3 hanging feeders I put out in the Spring. The location attracts skunks, wood rats and raccoons. I have one stationary feeder/mixed-seed, I start filling in November thru April.

We no longer have golden eagles migrating through. They hunted cats & small dogs, so I really don't miss 'em. Our population of Rufus hummingbirds has doubled. One year a pair of Chukar's found us....stayed a week, then moved on. Never saw them again. We think ..... we have a pair of great horned owls nesting out back. That's new. We haven't found their nest yet....they often sit on the eve of our house and hoot.....

Bears -- that is so cool! But I'm just as glad they don't make it into town. Me, I'm still trying to attack anything other than English sparrows :-(

Alisande, I have the same situation. Here's what I found out.

I didn't put the feeders up till December because the bears were still out due to very unusually warm weather. (The bears come day and night). I figured the birds had gotten used to someone else's feeder. I didn't see any eating the sunflower seeds, only the woodpecker seeds.

I came to realize the bags of sunflower seeds had so much dirt in them, the birds weren't eating it. The dirt came up in clouds of dust when I poured them, and coated the inside of the feeders with a layer of powdered dirt. I cleaned out the feeders and returned the bags to Lowes for a refund and bought a higher quality of seed somewhere else, that said it was clean but also cost twice as much.

The birds are now here in full force eating the clean seed and so are all the rodents on the ground, large and small, that carry tick diseases. Birds carry the ticks, too. I have Lyme disease and have studied this intensively. But the birds relax me so I still feed them. Gets me through the cold winter.

I was just this week saying the same thing to my husband. Where are the birds. I live in SW PA. I started putting out seed and nuts around Thanksgiving and only one day that we had snow did I see any birds. Just 3 chickadees. This summer we had found several birds dead where our property meets a field and just this week my husband found another one in the same area. This fall we had a virus that was killing deer. Wonder if there is something happening like that.

We had a hawk family in our yard.... Birds disappeared...when Hawks left, birds came back to our feeders. We are in the Midwest.

SE Wisc:

In my area, my birds have thinned dramatically in the past 2 weeks and I did not have as many as last year. I miss my evening feeding cardinal pair. They were the last to feed, arriving as it grew dark, to tank up for the night. My carndinals are a cautious pair. The male will post himself on a branch to stand watch while the female feeds, and as she becomes filled, he will begin to feed.

for the first time in several years, a pair of Blue Jays had been coming around, but they disappeared a week ago.

Earlier, I had the usual number of juncos and yellow finches in winter dress. These have disappeared in the past few days. Sometimes, that happens if someone nearby who has not been feeding puts up a feeder with something more interesting to the birds. For the last 2 days, there has been only a few birds. I suppose that coud have been weather related since we have lost our snow cover exposing large areas.

A week ago, I did have a flock of 9 wild turkeys stroll though. Its a wandering flock that patrols a fairly large area of 4 square miles.

This year, there has been a noticeable decline in birds at my feeder. Some of that may be due to more new subdivisions being developed on the perimeter of this small own, however, I am under the impression there has been a reduction in our bird population.

We are missing our usually large group of cardinals. I haven't seen juncos although they didn't show last year either. Very few of the typical tufted titmice and their good friend, the black capped and Carolina chickadees. I am seeing a couple of blue jays and some tiny finch type bird. We always have Carolina wrens, they're here in normal populations. Maybe I should put out some sunflower seeds.

It was mentioned on the news here at one point that there were large numbers of birds that perished during the hurricanes. I know that huge flocks of birds crashed into some of the sky scrapers.

Interesting responses--thanks, everyone! I have thought of feeding all year round and bringing in the feeders at night. One of my friends does it. But unless you have a single feeder, it seems like quite a nuisance--plus I don't trust myself to remember every night. Plus I can see myself endlessly shooing the cats away from the feeders in the house.

SusanZone5, I have Lyme disease too. Hate to say it, but I suspect we always will. Like you, I get much pleasure from feeding the birds. Maybe it's just as well I haven't done any hand-taming in recent years.

Interesting about the dirty seed. I'm feeding from a new bag and didn't notice any evidence of dirt. I have four feeders up: a metal mesh one that I used last year, a large-capacity metal one I bought this year, a thistle seed feeder for the finches, and a suet cage. The suet is getting attention, and so is last year's metal mesh feeder. No finches, so the thistle seed is untouched. But so, apparently, is the larger metal sunflower seed feeder. I was excited to find it on sale at Tractor Supply, but apparently the birds don't find it nearly as exciting as I.

Sad about bird losses during the hurricanes! I don't think any of my songbirds migrate, but I'm not certain about that.

I still haven't seen a single cardinal, but the doves and juncos are faithful. I scatter cracked corn and some seeds for them. Maybe we'll see more chickadees, etc., when the serious snow flies.

Here north of Pittsburgh we are feeding more than usual it seems. All the regulars, plus a lot of Starlings accompanied by a few Red Winged Blackbirds, both of which we don't normally see this time of year. We are also hosting a least 8 squirrels. They do a good job of cleaning up on the ground. The heated birdbath is used by everyone for drinks. But those Starlings conduct a vigorous group bath daily which almost empties it. Dh refreshes it usually twice a day.

We used to put out chunks of beef suet that was welcomed by a lot of the birds, but as it has became harder to find, rely now on the commercial suet cakes. Last week found a beautiful chunk of beef suet at our grocers, put it out for them....they don't go near it. Guess they are just like we humans, got spoiled by the store bought stuff with all the additives in it.

I used to feed beef suet too. When I could find it, I'd buy all I could and put it in the freezer. I swore it was better stuff than the commercial suet cakes. But at some point I realized the birds didn't agree. Now I don't see beef suet at all, so it's a moot point.

Just this morning while reading KT at the kitchen table I've seen a blue jay, a female cardinal, a tufted titmouse, and a chickadee in the tree and bush outside the windows.

Brag, brag, brag, Bob. LOL

Seriously, it's good to know they're alive and well somewhere else, if not here.

The Chicago area is having a banner year for snowy owls that come from the Arctic.

I see fewer birds around our yard daily. We are a 'regular stop' during migration, with fresh water in the creek beside our house. Robins usually over-winter along the creek, which is actually a drainage ditch dug to widen a small 'river' in the late 1800's. The water is down about 12 feet, so it is seldom iced over.

Our entire weather pattern has changed over the last few years. Little snow. Wildly bouncing temperatures.

The organization that does a winter bird count around Christmas and New Year has spotted a trend. Their data indicates, that on the average, birds are wintering about 200 miles north of where they once did 50 yrs ago.

That must be the Audubon Christmas bird count. We used to participate years ago. Interesting result, Jem. Global warming.