I like birdwatching to. We put up several feeders for them in the winter. One is right outside the diningroom window, since we have an open concept house we get to see it from all the rooms. I also have started growing sunflowers that the blue jays have stripped in record time. The jays aren't back yet but probably will be soon. We have a few woodpeckers coming around, chickadees who seem to have left because I haven't seen any since last winter, the american gold finch and lots of the house sparrows. We made a suet feeder out of a log and the chickadees, woodpeckers and goldfinch just love it. I think they sit in the trees and wait and watch when I refill them because they're there as soon as I go inside again. Anyone else noticed that the chickadees have 'flown the coop'? Hope they come back, they're antics are so cute to watch. Marg

I am very worried about this upcoming winter. Every long range forecast has predicted it to be a harsh, bitter one over Western Canada, comparable to the nasty winter of 2008-09.

Actually, we have more than the usual chickadees this year, there were a lot of young ones through the summer so I guess many of them nested close by.

And as for weather forecasters - I think I need that job...wrong half the time and still get paid!

I just have one feeder of black oil sunflower seeds, I get almost all chickadees and nuthatches. Sometimes I see a finch or two. There are a lot of blue jays and woodpeckers around but I haven't noticed them feeding on my feeder. I tried suet a few years ago but like Pudge they didn't seem keen on the store bought stuff.

Lots lots lots of chickadees this year, it only took them 10 minutes to notice the feeder when I put it up and it was swamped within an hour and empty 2 days later.

We have a couple of feeders that we put out. One is for sunflower seeds and it attracts mostly chickadees and a couple of their nuthatch friends. We also get pine grosbeaks during the winter - they're beautiful! We have whisky jacks and blue jays right now but they seem to get scarce during the winter. There are always a couple of woodpeckers as well - downy and hairy. If dh gets a deer, he hangs some of the fat in different places and the chickadees, especially, love it. I do put out the suet cakes and they seem to like it, woodpeckers especially. I need to find another place for that this winter because the pole we hung it on is gone. My little Manitoba maple might be big enough now for it - will have to check.

I love having the birds around too. They sure liven up the winter!

I feed the birds all year sort of. They start with cleaning off the sunflowers that they plant the previous fall and continue to clean off the grasses, berries, and corn that I sometimes grow just for them. Of course I have water out all the time for them and a heated dish in the winter.

I feed the big birds cat food with bread or cereal in it. They get any left overs when I cook a turkey or ham. I make my own concoction of peanut butter, prunes, hulled sunflower seeds, rolled oats, millet, black oil sunflower and a few other things they like to pick at. I buy millet, black oil sunflower and striped sunflower by the sack and keep it in large bins in the hall along with peanuts,hulled sunflower seeds, oats and rabbit pellets. Once in a while I will give them a treat of meal worms from the petstore or cut up fruit. And sometimes I will get a seed bell or spray millet just to watch them. I also ground up dry catfood last year and put it in the feeder. The little birds get much needed fat and protein to keep warm that way.

I have the usual black and white feather dusters, the blue jays, lots of chickadees (black capped and boreal), nuthatches (red and white breasted), woodpeckers, northern flickers, juncos, finches, sparrows, the odd grosbeaks, waxwings, and redpolls and I even had a kestral last spring. Not many crows unless it is a really warm winter.

My computer is in the corner of the front bedroom where there are the old corner windows. I feed the birds from about 5 feeders and baskets hanging from the big white spruce about 2 feet from the corner of the house here. I feed the rabbits under the tree and the dish feeders on the fence from big heavy ceramic dishes. It is such a routine for me to feed the birds after I feed the dogs on winter mornings. My neighbours are used to the crazy lady in her fleece pjs out feeding the birds every morning and the dogs go out and wait by the fence for the maggies to drop food for them. Quite the scene to watch! The maggies are very comical and they literally talk to me.

I can't stand to see anything go hungry or be cold and the little birds seem to like to feast under the protective branches of this 50 foot spruce. My neighbour across the street says she likes to sit with her coffee in the morning and watch the bunnies and birds eating. And that reminds me: Must find a bale of hay for the bunnies. Last year I fed a cat all winter but coudln't catch her. She left me mice most mornings under the kennel.......

I hope we have a mild winter or at least get some snow. It is bitterly cold without a little insulation.

Ginny

We don't get boreal chickadees, ever. Apparently we are close to their range but they don't leave the coniferous forests. I've been noticing black capped chickadees with beige tummies this year but I think it's just a variation in plumage. I also get white breasted nuthatches with reddish bellies but they're not red breasted NHs.

I don't think i've ever seen a boreal chickadee either. Ours are black-capped, and our usual flock is about 8 of them during the winter, 8 chickadees and a couple of nuthatches. I've never checked to see which ones they are, though.

You gals make me want to feed the birds this winter. It sounds like fun and of course a good thing to do. I've never fed the birds from a feeder. If I put one out now, it may sound like a silly question, but will they find it if they're not used to having one here?

Please make sure you post pictures this winter. =:)

When we put up our feeders, I wondered the same thing. It did take a while because they weren't used to it but now they empty the suet feeder 2-3 times a week. The flat feeder we have for sunflowers gets emptied every other day, usually by the jays. We did buy a goldfinch feeder because we were told the finches liked them but here they don't. They eat from my ornamental grasses instead. I love watching the birds at the feeders in the winter. Marg

I have been feeding the birds for many years as Dad did. When I moved the feeders to the spot under the spruce tree they seemed to find it no problem. They like the cover and so do I; less snow under the tree. If they feel safe and not so out in the open, the little birds will find the feeders. I am lucky to have this big tree so close to the house although it is difficult to take pics through these old windows. I do get close ups though as the nuthatches go up and down the trees and the woodys bang away on the trunks. There is a big maple about 8 feet from this window too so it is like a little forest. :)

Gil and Marcia ~ The Boreal Chickadees are not as common as the Black Capped here but we do get a few. Closer to the mountains and a very deep river valley (which we are close to) here in Edmonton.

I also have a thistle feeder for Niger seed. The finches like that one. Who would have ever thought something so simple could bring such pleasure on a cold winters day? :)

Ginny

NAF - if you want to try simple bird feeding, buy a regular feeder where some food drops through a slot in the bottom and it has at least one perch. I just got a new one for $7 at walmart made of recycled plastic and it works and looks super awesome. Then buy Black Oil sunflower seeds. I find our northern birds prefer them to the striped ones or any mixed seeds. In my yard I can't put out anything with millet or mixed seeds because it attracts those horrible house sparrows (finches actually) and I don't get any nice birds. Once you have a clientele they will rely on you so make sure you keep them fed!

In the summer, goldfinches will come to niger seed, but I don't feed birds in summer unless letting weeds go to seed counts. ;0)

An evergreen tree is what I lack at my feeding area. I'm hoping once the arbor thickens with vines that it will provide some protection.

Well it DID snow and it's STILL snowing and it's supposed to snow ALL DAY. I haven't seen the house, gold and purple finches for a couple of days so they must have known this was coming.

NAF, like Gil says, the Black Oil Sunflower Seed is the best way to start and will attract the most types of birds to the yard. When you first put the feeder out, sprinkle some seeds on the ground, too, that will help attract them.

Not in the yard but a few miles outside of town yesterday, for the first time ever, I saw a Snowy Owl. Just a glimpse as I drove by, but I'm considering it my good luck charm for the winter ;)

Here's a past thread with Konrad's waxwings on a fence, and a bunch of other photos as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: previous winter birding thread

Pudge, apparently Snowy Owls are very territorial and usually won't leave their approx. 2 mile territory, so if you've seen one there you have a good chance to see it again. I've seen snowies many times but all in the same place so it was probably the same individual.

Thanks Pudge for the link, yes, that one on the fence I love very much...kind of one in a lifetime shot.
Black sunflower seed is also my favored, then thistle nyjer seed, most for the Red polls who show up later here, usually by around Christmas. Snowy Owls I haven't spotted any the last two years, so I'm still saying they're in decline, in the 80ties I have seen them almost daily going and coming from work in winter.