Very odd. No birds.

For the past 3 or 4 days I haven't seen a bird outside. It's not just that they haven't visited the additional feeders I've put up, it is that I haven't seen ANY birds outside. None in the trees. None flying.

I realize some birds fly elsewhere for winter, but here a lot of them stay.

My pet birds inside are fine, so it should not be air quality.

Very odd.

Strange that you mention this. We normally are overrun with gold finches and robins coming down from the North, but so far we have only seen one robin and one gold finch. Maybe it's still too early, but I thought by December they were here.

Matter of fact, even the cardinals and other birds we normally see at the feeder have been pretty darn scarce.

Didn't miners used to take canaries into the mines as an early warning for poisonous fumes that the birds would respond to faster than humans could detect them?

Or maybe they just found some place with better fare on the menu then what we are offering here?

Surely they must be SOMEWHERE?

Oddly enough, I was just remarking the other day that I hadn't been seeing birds around here. I assumed it was related to the hours I've been keeping; now I'm intrigued.

I have pet birds inside, parakeets and finches (canaries are very similar to finches). They are doing fine, so I don't think it is air quality.
I have 5 feeders outside freshly filled with seeds, they don't look like they've been touched.

I posted my observation on a gardening board where I have been a long time member. A couple of people agreed they haven't seen many birds, but here is one quote from someone who lives north of Houston: "I have seen lots of birds, in fact it was almost the bird movie the other night at the grocery store the trees were vibrating with birds and they were everywhere in the parking lot, kinda scary. The tops of the cars all had birds on them. And they weren't scared at all we could not shoo them off the car to leave. They rode along till we left the parking lot. Very strange."
She has her head on straight, so I believe what she said.

Been warm up north here. A few cold days here and there but supposed to be 57 this Thursday in Cleveland. Massive snowstorm this time last year.

You can always check ebird.org and see if the patterns you're seeing this year reflect historical records (ebird.org has reliable data back until the 1970s). The big migration push is done, however, so we're in the winter lull now.

Thanks Vanessa. I actually sent them an email, so hopefully they will reply with some insight. There are some types of birds who leave in the winter but we have a number that will stay, as it does not get extremely cold here.

Not a problem around here. The birds have been hanging out later here. Yesterday, the geese was this dark mass in the sky.

Had 4 horned larks. Almost killed myself trying to get a picture, they flew away.

This morning, the werns where fighting in the hops vines and a chickadee would not SHUT UP.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Strange that you mention this. We normally ar overrun with gold finches and robins coming down from the North, but so far we have only seen one robin and one gold finch. Maybe it's still too early, but I thought by December they were here...

The robins are still here in Virginia. There have been thousands of them over the last few weeks. Flocks of 100-150 or so circulating though, hitting the cedar and holly berries, crapping on my truck and field equipment, then heading out.

Wasn't there a bird flu epidemic this past summer that affected chicken egg production? Do you suppose it had an impact on wild birds as well?