Nice assortment of birds Margaret.

We still have birds around but not as many as usual and they stopped visiting the feeders so I stopped filling them a week ago because they'd still be full a few days later which is very odd. There's still some suet in one of the suet feeders and I've seen sporadic visits from a Downy Woodpecker but other than that ... it's quiet. Someone told me once that when the birds disappear from the feeders for awhile it's usually because they are finding plants, shrubs and trees with available berries and seeds and this is certainly the time of year (here anyway) that plants are making a lot of seeds.

We had a taste of autumn weather down here for @ 2 days and then it warmed up again. It's 81º right now and supposed to be near 90º by the weekend. It wouldn't be so bad if the humidity weren't so high. I volunteered at our botanical gardens from 9:00 til noon today and it was just so sticky outside; but then I came home and repotted a few plants and got even sweatier and dirtier ... now it's time for a shower!

Lin, I am sure your birds will all eventually come back.

Lots, & lots & lots of birds here. We watched 1 of the red shouldered hawks this morning out in the field eating earthworms! It was getting a lot of them too. We used the binoculars to see what it was eating.
The list of birds here is..... house finches, cardinals, blue jays, mocking birds, carolina wrens, palm warblers, blue birds, sparrows, baltimore oriole, tufted titmouse, american crows, & we see herons of many kinds flying overhead to the lake that is nearby us, also ducks of various kinds & ibis.

Nice to be able to watch all those birds, Ann.

Oh yeah, the regulars (Cardinals, Doves, Jays etc. will be back ... they never stray far. I have seen a lot of Palm Warblers lately ... the cutest tiny little things that constantly flick their tails. They've been eating berries in some shrubs in the yard and I also see them flitting about in the lawn for bugs of some sort :

I just love the pictures.

Oh! they are the cutest Lin!

Thanks .. I love the tiny ones!

Lovely!

plantladylin said:Thanks .. I love the tiny ones!

Me too!

Today there are just a few tiny ones out there. I cleaned and changed the bird feeders, scrubbed the water containers and put all fresh seed in everything. I noticed a small of some kind of urine under two of the bird feeders. I cleaned up all the wasted seed and tried to make the smell go away since I was not sure if that may bother the birds and squirrels. Even the squirrels are gone.
I am really concerned. I threw out some bread, some cheerios and not one bird has come to get them. Usually they fight over it.

The weather is weird but I doubt that is the problem.

If some predator (fox, raccoon, etc.) has urinated beneath/around the feeder, that scent could very well be scaring off the birds and squirrels.

A short while ago I had to chase a darn cat out of the yard!!

I filled three feeders this morning and not one bird has touched the seed all day ... not even the pesky pigeons that one of my neighbors feeds! There has been a feral cat problem in this community the past few years but feral's usually only hunt in the evening and at night and I have not seen any cats around at all. I haven't heard or seen the hawks in the past few days either so I'm assuming the songbirds are finding sufficient food elsewhere. The little Downy WP's still come by for the suet but the Red-bellied Woodpeckers that are usually at the suet feeders (sometimes three and four times a day) have not been around in a few weeks; I hear them on occasion but they don't stop by to eat. I really do think it's that time of year when the birds are finding berries and seeds that the plants have available. As soon as the plants go to rest for the winter the backyard birds will be back.

I was outside cleaning the deck a little while ago and noticed a couple of the ittle Palm Warbler's going after moths that are in one of my flower beds. I watered some hanging baskets that I have in a tree and I guess the water was causing the moths to fly out ... It was fun to watch those warblers going after the moths!

Well, some of the birds have left, but there's quite a few left! And there's a deer (or more than one) around. Saw one at the top of the property yesterday, today there were deer prints made after the rain last night. I think someone in our area feeds deer in the fall/winter, which could be why they disappeared. I would guess it's a hunting thing.

The only birds that we've been seeing here are the Titmice, Chickadees, and the Cardinals…The Mockingbirds, Blue Jays, Wood Peckers (Downy and Red Bellies) and Carolina Wrens, have been few and far between. This time of year, it seems that they are finding more of the "native/natural" food.

I saw one lonely dove this morning. The little birds are still here (just sparrows).