Odd Feeder Year

Northern Cardinal, Needham, MA

This is the first year in the five years or so I've been actively feeding birds that a cardinal pair have been regular visitors to my window and tube feeders (technically under the feeders competing with squirrels for seeds rejected by others). Every once in a while I catch a strain of mid-winter cardinal song. Makes it feel like March.

Northern Cardinal, Needham, Ma

But it is an odd year for other birds, not just because we have been blessed with myriad red-breasted nuthatches.

Red-breasted Nuthatch, Needham, MA

Goldfinch numbers are way down (no one is visiting my new nyjer feeder, though a junco tries to pull some seeds out every once in a while). And oddities of oddities I'm seeing far fewer house sparrows. Not that I mind (and I know populations are robust in other parts) but it is a little disconcerting....