I feed year-round because seeds and berries are just now appearing here. Also, a lot of what people plant offers little in the way of food for birds. I have started planting more natives (serviceberries, blueberries,etc.), but many are new and not fruiting yet.

When food is abundant, I find I don't need to refill the feeders as frequently. I also provide suet year round and don't use chemicals. We have large numbers of birds in our yard. We wake to birdsong every morning-wonderful!

It has been a hot and dry summer here, and I'm not sure if this is affecting birds and food sources in the wild. I normally put only a little bit of food in the feeders during the summer. This year there does seem to be a lot of traffic at the feeders when I do put food out.

I've tried to provide many natural food sources. It seems to be working, because there are birds flitting all over the yard, including many species that don't come to the feeders. Right now there are Elderberries starting to reach peak ripeness, they attract many birds. There are seeds forming on the Rudbeckia and Cup plant which attracts the Goldfinches. Hummingbirds come frequently during the day for the Monarda and Lobelia cardinalis, however I have had to water those pretty regularly so they produce nectar.

There also seems to be lots of insects in the yard and gardens, but there might be more if we had received more rain. To encourage insects, I grow a majority of native trees, shrubs, and perennials and don't use pesticides. I've also left up several snags and lots of dead branches. The birds are constantly poking around and a couple evenings last week, there was a bat flying through the back yard catching insects.

Today was interesting. I had allowed some sunflowers to grow in the area of one bird feeder. Last week something cut many of the seedheads off and nibbled most of the leaf edges leaving only the central part of the leaf. At first I thought it was the dreaded Japanese bettle until I noticed the top few leave not touched. The poor apple tree looks like a poodle groomer has been at it.

But this morning the goldfinches were attacking the remainder of the seedheads. The flowers only opened last week so not much of a seed would have been formed but one flower had two finches on it one on the top of the bloom and one on the stem below the flower. A very nice sight.

We've had a nearly perfect spring and summer here. There was no late frost for the first time in many years. June was hotter than normal so it seems like it's been a long summer but the rains have come just in time and I've watered my plants very little, mostly just the new stuff I planted this year and anything in containers because those dry out fast. I watered a few of my established plants yesterday because it's been so hot but today it's raining. I should've waited.

With the good weather, I have more berries than usual on my shrubs. I noticed yesterday that the viburnum dentatum berries are starting to disappear. I have a few that are picked clean and three more that are still loaded with berries. It doesn't look like they've started on the gray dogwood berries or viburnum trilobum yet.

In the wild part of our property, there is a lot of hackberry and wild cherries. Those had a lot of fruit this year too but I haven't noticed whether the birds haven't gotten it. I saw baby wild turkeys in our field a couple times that are almost grown now. It's a first for me to see young ones on our property.

In the shrub row that I planted several years ago, there are thrashers (I think) that run through the bushes but never fly away. It's hard to catch a glimpse of them. This year, I've had wrens chattering at me all summer from my shrubs. They like to hide too.
There was a goldfinch sitting on one of my dried up coneflowers yesterday and I've seen one visiting my cosmos.
I only had one sunflower volunteer this year. I wish I had planted some. I love watching the goldfinches perch on the seed heads. I have a big patch of Mexican Sunflowers (tithonia) but they're not blooming yet.

We are overrun with goldfinches this year. I love watching them sit atop the echinacea and catching that flash of yellow as they zip around the backyard is great fun.

Me too on the goldfinches. Currently am putting out 1 large plastice coffee can of black oil sunflower seeds in addition to the standing sunflower plants. We have never had this many goldfinches.

One thing I am noticing is that there appear to be coloration mutations in the cardinals that are feeding. Of course they are molting currently but there are several without top knots or are all gray with cardinal beaks. No they are not titmice.

I think you're right that they would be molting this time of year and you may be seeing some juveniles too. Can you post a photo?

Just noticed we don't many grasshoppers this summer which is odd.

I will try to post pictures if I can get clear shots. Now have a camera that will connect to the net.

What is weird with grasshoppers is that about July 4 I had a patch of grass with many hoppers. Looked like a snow storm when my dog stepped through that patch. Last week I noticed a full grown yellow grasshopper and realized the ones I had been seeing have disappeared.

I was in the edge of Nebraska's sandhills this past week and at one prairie restoration site there were swarms on many of the plants. Next couple of years may be really bad unless something kills them.

I do have a question. At one museum there was a stuffed yellow headed blackbird supposedly killed in the area before the early 70's. Has anyone seen them? It looked like those two crow like birds on the window cleaner commercials except the white parts were light yellow.

In the past fifty years it has been my experience that birds need supplemental feeding year round.Right now probably the least but spring and early summer when they are feeding their young it is very beneficial.

Here in SE MA, we haven't had hardly any rain since the very beginning of summer. Then, to kill mosquitos, the state sprayed insecticide (by plane) over a vast area. Needless to say, my feeders have been super-busy.

Kelp - Did they spray insecticide over homes? I hope not.

the state sprayed insecticide (by plane) over a vast area

Kelp, do you know more details about this spraying? I hope they didn't spray over my town (metrowest). I can't believe that people blanket spray poisons over large geographical areas anywhere! Especially during a dry year like we're having now, there's not many mosquitoes anyway.

I think people get so irate about being bitten by one mosquito that they push their local government to commence spraying. The tax dollars would probably be better spent feeding seeds to attract the birds that would be happy gobbling up mosquitoes along with other pests. They will need that protein to balance out their seed intake.

Earlier in the season I went outside on what looked like a foggy night. Instead of the air being moist with fog it was dusty in my mouth. A few minutes later I felt dizzy and sick. I didn't see a single mosquito, fly, or other bug for several weeks but then they came back. An increase in bird population would have had a longer lasting effect. I didn't so much as get a warning that spraying was going on and I'd rather have had a few mosquito bumps than to feel ill for a night.

Yes, Terrene, it was a dry year last time. And they sprayed anyway. AND it was late in the year, so the mosquitoes would have died soon, anyway. (All it takes is to have one mosquito test positive for EEE or West Nile virus. I understand these diseases are dangerous, but does it justify spraying an entire area and poisoning everything? Not IMHO.) Christie, yep, over houses, streams, everything. Buckstarchaser, they give you warning. The local news channel tells you to shut your windows and air conditioners. Which would help IF you happen to see the news the night before. I actually did hear the report, went out and covered up my blueberry plants with a tarp, and, of course, took it off in the morning. As it turned out, for some reason or other, they didn't spray that night, but the next. AFTER I had taken off the tarp. ( I hadn't heard about the change of plans.) Sorry it took so long to answer questions, I had forgotten about this post.

Really Kelp I thought you must be wrong but I guess not because I found an article about it. It's insane.

Would a good alternative be for the same entity to give out free mosquito dunks? At least that would be more targeted and people would have a choice.

It seems like blanket spraying would HAVE to be killing birds and bats if there's less food for them to eat, and what insects they do eat are poisoned. Do you know whether it kills ALL insects, including caterpillars, butterflies etc? Frogs and fish?

They don't need to kill every mosquito on the planet and every other insect in the process. Sounds like their plan though. If they just used the dunks to reduce the numbers of mosquitoes, the birds, frogs, fish and bats will reduce the numbers even more. Unless of course they've already killed all the birds, frogs, fish and bats.
They should do an IQ test before anyone can apply for a job that gives them authority to do something like that.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mass to begin spraying for mosquitoes Aug 2010

When you go out to your car the next morning, (after they spray) there are thousands of insects --on the ground, on your car,...everywhere. It's utterly unnerving... Seeing how you mentioned IQ tests -- I'll tell you what job REALLY requires an IQ test; whoever instructed the crews you see all summer hacking away at the trees along our highways. (I'm talking about the ones set back from the road, so there's no chance of them dropping branches on, or getting in the way of vehicles.) I'm asuming they've been told it will reduce fires. They've been sold a bill of goods, so to speak. What it actually does is INCREASE the risk of fire. By removing all the lower branches, they allow sunlight to reach the ground under the trees, thus allowing grass to grow under them. Very flammable. Plus, invariably, the trees die. We all know dead trees set afire more easily than live ones do. Together, these 2 things greatly increase the chance of fire. And it breaks my heart to see them mauled like that. "UGLY" isn't adequate a word to describe what they look like when they're done. And the fall color? Not even half as nice. With the MA economy the way it is, you think they'd do all they can to beautify the state so as to draw more tourists in.

It's unfortunate that they did that Kelp. Sounds worthy of a television documentary or something.

After thinking about this thread some more, I think that the drought last summer definitely affected the natural food supplies in our area. If there were fewer insects during the drought, this means fewer larvae and adults that overwinter. Also, the berries, nuts, and fruits didn't seem to have very good crops. I've got lots of wild Crabapples in the back yard and fruiting was poor this fall. Flowering was great last Spring, but many fruits seemed to dry up on the bushes. Many of these fruits normally persist for months and provide food for the birds all through the winter.

Kelp, I am very dismayed by your stories of spraying in parts of our state. I totally agree that it's ridiculous to blanket the landscape with poison because of a tiny risk of a mosquito borne disease.

As for the clearing along highways - there could be very good reasons for doing this pertaining to safety. Have you identified what plants they are clearing? Perhaps they are cutting out invasive plants, such as Bittersweet or Buckthorn, in which case I am all for it.

No, this doesn't have to do with safety. The trees that they're cutting down are FAR from the road --so there's no chance of them falling down on passing cars. Also, there aren't any power lines on the sides of highways. And no, there're not specifically cutting down invasives, although a few also get "trimmed". What I'm talking about is cutting the lower branches of pines, oaks, etc., that are WAY away from the road. Sometimes they cut ALL of the branches on the side that faces the road. (A good example is Route 140, from New Bedford to Taunton.) It's a money-maker for whoever got the contract, that's for sure. Money waster is more like it. If they were to spend the money we're spending on this abomination, we'd have put a serious dent in the bittersweet that's strangling so many trees around here, and the miles of multiflora rose, autumn olive, and Japanese knotweed that's everywhere. If you're from MA, just take a moment to look to the side of the highway this summer. You'll see this monstrosity of a machine, just tearing up the trees. Makes no sense. We need all the trees we can get: They sequester CO2 from the air, (reducing greenhouse gases), produce the oxygen we breathe, keep water in our area, make and preserve the topsoil, keep our houses cooler in the summer, increase the value of our homes, are beautiful to look at, bring in the tourists in the fall... These were just off the top of my head. I could probably go on if I took some time to think about it.
I wish we could be more like the Lake Tahoe area. In an effort to keep the lake clean, (If you don't have grass lawns, you won't have run-off of pesticides and synthetic fertilizer) and keep the tourists coming (Many come from the city, and would like to get away from the concrete jungle they live in) they have a law that you can only cut down enough trees to build your home. Or North Carolina. My daughter lived there, and she said you had to have a permit to cut down a tree in your yard if it was of a certain size. (She also said it was one of the most beautiful states she's ever lived in, and she's lived in many states.) Again, I digress. But, that's pleasant wishful thinking, Terrene.

Kelp, you mention being more like the Lake Tahoe area. Although there are no laws there is nothing to keep any individual from trying to prevent things going into the water system. I try to limit what I use and never feed the lawn just individual areas or plants. But even more important than using less chemicals is to prevent the runoff in the first place. With our 2-8 inch rains in less than 24 hours it makes for lots of puddles or rivers in the yard but by planning and planting to retain or retard the moisture things can be done to provide food and shelter for the wild things and still help keep the runoff at a minimum. Each person can help and if enough people there may be less problems.

I am starting to look at more cover plants.