My birding for the weekend was limited to a brief walk around the edge of our hotel’s parking lot in Atlanta (Yellow-rumped Warbler, Eastern Towhee, Northern Cardinal, and a whopping 7 other species), plus a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds from the window at the Waffle House during breakfast. Other than that, my use of binoculars for the last 3 days has been limited to playing with them indoors at the trade show.

Birding withdrawal symptoms were quite evident by the end of this weekend. Twitching in one eye. A tendency to start spishing as I walked by a booth with bird sounds eminating from it. One optics representative even thought that he heard me muttering bird names as I scanned the trade shore floor with their newest product. Therefore, the first thing I did this morning was take the dog for a walk at Hedgehog Mountain Park. Nothing cures birding withdrawal like a (immature) Northern Shrike perched atop a sapling in the low morning light, simply glowing against a vivid, crisp, blue sky!

Among many of the interesting discussions that Jeannette and I had with many other store owners and vendors over the course of the weekend related to perceived declines in activity at bird feeders throughout the Eastern U.S. Store owners from Missouri to Michigan to Florida to Maine (us) have all seen a decline in feeding volume. So, what does this mean?

Well, it means very little, actually – from a bird’s perspective anyway. It does not seem to be disease, it is does not seem to be population declines (for most species), but it seems to be nothing more than nature! Despite the below zero windchills Jeannette and I felt when we stepped off the plane last night (boy, that was a rude awakening!), it has in fact been a very mild winter – throughout the East Coast. A good growing season (plenty of rain) in many places, like the Northeast, followed by a mild winter (so far) means there is plenty of natural food available.

For the most part, birds are not dependent on bird feeders. Bird feeding is a supplement (certainly a helpful one on a morning like today). Birds are not dependent on our food – they use it in addition to natural sources of food. American Goldfinches for example, will eat less Nyger seed when there is an abundance of natural crops like thistle, primrose, birch, and alder. Therefore, when nature’s bounty is available, our offerings are less important.

But, those conclusions (for this winter at least) are based on one assumption – that we are actually in fact seeing less activity at our feeders than last winter. Sharing anecdotal accounts of decreased seed sales or less activity at your own feeder are not exactly scientific. So, DO we have less bird activity at feeders this winter? Certainly, most people I talked to this weekend thought so.

But, how can we find out? One source is the annual Christmas Bird Counts. But, that’s just a snapshot of the season. The Great Backyard Bird Count is helpful, but that’s another snapshot – of only one weekend in February. However, we have two great sources of information: one new, one old.

First, there is the venerable Project Feederwatch run by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Project Feederwatch is a winter-long survey of feeder birds submitted by participants from across the continent. For a small participation fee (to cover materials and to support the project) any interested observers can be “citizen scientists” count the birds in their yards for 2 consecutive days every two weeks. The data can than be used to follow population trends, range changes, and to simply tell us “where birds are and where they are not.”

The second potential resource to answer our questions is “Ebird.” Observers submit their sightings from anywhere (feeder, yard, local park, travel, etc) at anytime. The data can be accessed online by anyone – a traveler wondering if Palm Warblers are in Atlanta in January or are Common Redpolls being seen in Maine? Population trends can be tracked, range changes can be followed, vagrants can be monitored, and questions such as “where are all the feeder birds?” can (in part) be answered. The more people who participate, the more useful and important the data will be. As an added bonus, Ebird can even maintain your birding lists for you!

So, are there fewer feeder birds around this winter? If not where are they – they’re certainly NOT in MY yard in Pownal (but, here at the store, our feeders are much more active than they were this time last year)? Well, with Project Feederwatch and Ebird, along with the Great Backyard Bird Count, Christmas Bird Counts, are other birder’s reports, maybe we can find out. For me, however, it is back to sorting catalogues for the moment.