More snow, and getting colder. The Goldfinches have been very active, at the store, and at home. But, at home they are not all Goldfinches, but Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls. No wonder we have been going through Nyjer like water. Today I went out to fill our Squirrel Buster Plus with Black Oil Sunflower seeds and the whole top of the tree it was hanging in was buzzing with Pine Siskins, Common Redpolls, Goldfinches, and a few House Finches. It was amazing, I don't think I have ever seen that many at one time in our 19+ years of feeding birds. The only bird missing at our feeders this year are the Red-breasted Nuthatches. Our little Downy Woodpecker was back for a meal at the store today. He spent quite a bit of time poking around at the tree bark before he decided to fly over to the Suet Log. It was getting dark, so he didn't spend a long time at the feeder, but it is always exciting to see different birds showing up. All the birds are enjoying the heated bird bath we have at both the store and at home. We are due from some very frigid weather in the week ahead, and many of our customers are quite concerned for their birds. We just tell them to make sure they have feeders full and open water, and their birds will be fine!

Well 2009 has been exciting so far. We have discovered that we have Common Redpolls at home, and at the store we have a Downy Woodpecker back, enjoying our Suet log. I know there are Red-bellied woodpeckers at the back area of our store, and hope to eventually lure them to the front where the feeders are. We are still waiting for a Pileated woodpecker to visit our suet log at home. Our woodpeckers at both locations seem to really enjoy the Roasted Peanut log suet the most.

It is amazing to see all the goldfinches always chowing down at the nyjer feeder almost everytime I look out the window. Just about every customer that walks in the door makes a comment about all the finches on the feeder.

We are expecting very frigid weather in the next few days, so we are paying particular attention to keeping all our feeders full, and fresh water available.

It's January 2, 2009!! Our first bird sighting of 2009 was a male Cardinal. What a way to start off the year. We have had a January melt-down in December this year. With record snowfall in December, it seems unreal that is has all melted away except the huge piles from snowplows. We did get about 4 inches a couple of days ago, but now it is just windy. Our finches at the store don't seem to mind the feeder always at an angle with the blowing wind though. Since we put up the Droll Yankees 36" Finch Flocker we have had so many more Goldfinches than in years past. Our Chickadees have returned since they discovered our other Droll Yankees tube feeder full of Nutra-Saff. They seem to really enjoy that seed. In fact all the birds seem to like it. We have a Kozy-Bird Spa out for them to enjoy, and they seem to have taken to it very quickly.