peanuts and suet

Below zero F air temperature.  Wind makes it feel even colder.  Clouds and snow flurries prevent any warmth from sunshine.

The suet is popular with several species.  They do not mind close association when it comes to getting nourishment on a cold day.  Here, a Downy Woodpecker and Black-capped Chickadee partake as a Dark-eyed Junco (with claws more suited for finding seeds on the ground) tries to figure out the best way to hang and feed as the others.

Meanwhile, the new peanut ring attracts the Bluejays.  The Chickadees and Nuthatches explored it immediately.  The Bluejays were more cautious but their curiosity led them to solving the puzzle of this feeder.

Redpolls in winter

 Common Redpolls Acanthis flammea spend most of the year in the arctic tundra and boreal forests. Although they breed in the far north, flocks of Redpolls wander south in winter months to find food in woodlands, open fields, and backyard feeders.  Their striped breast and bright red forehead patch differentiate them from House Finches with a thicker bill and more rosey red around the face.  Left: a flock of Redpolls on the seed tray.  Below: a Redpoll looking down on a House Finch on a branch in winter.

feeder garden bandits

 Although the feeder garden is intended to feed birds, the squirrels find it enticing too.  The Red Squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus usually gathers food on the ground below the tray of seeds.  The Grey Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis prefers to find ways to leap on the tray, dropping from a branch above or leaping from a stump nearby.  The tray is on a pole with a "slinky" metal coil suspended -- which the squirrels do not climb.

winter feeder garden

The feeder garden at the edge of the woods offers nuts, seeds, and suet to birds in a tray, baskets, tubes, and NEW a peanut ring.  They were pecking nuts out of the peanut ring within an hour.  Snow on the ground, temperatures around zero.  The Northern Cardinals are a bright spot in the scene.