Ohhhhhhhhh, is that interesting!!! The seed is fresh, and I never dreamed anything could "hatch" from it ... what a wonderrrr-ful lesson! Thanks very much for your replies, I deeply appreciate it! Happy Spring and Summer! PS: I thought of the sadness in our hearts about Virginia Tech, but yet, these little tiny miracle birds come, to gladden our hearts a bit. Life is good ~ it seems!

Bob, Great Shot, glad to see some of your finches are already molting to their summer breeding plumage, that means spring is coming,,,Hurrah!! Fortunately we got a nice sunny 35degF day today so I was able to get a shot from my bedroom window showing my whole feeder setup. The first shot is looking east from my bedroom window. In this shot you can see my seed hopper and suet feeders on the Maple tree, which is 60ft from my camera position. This location is working very well because many of the birds roost in the Maple tree during the day. Although you can barely see it in the photo about 20ft to the right of the Hopper there is a 65ft high pine tree that affords great cover for the smaller birds. Ten feet to the left of the Maple tree there is a small Butternut tree that is a favorite roosting place for the Morning Doves. I generally see upwards of 35 doves in that tree each morning. Another 15 ft to the left is a second 60ft Pine tree and behind the feeder sight you can see an 18 acres open meadow. You can see the woods are the far side of the meadow. That woods extends for about a square mile and it is mostly old stand hardwoods. Across the road to the left of this photo is another 300 acre hardwood stand, some new growth near the road, but old stand hardwoods from about 100 feet off the road. In the foreground to the left you can see my old garment hanger with the Niger & mixed seed tubes. On the left end on top you can see the plastic bucket lid that I use for a platform feeder. From my vantage point I generally use a 300mm lens to shoot birds on the hopper, suet feeder or on the ground below the hopper, while I use a 200mm to shoot close ups of the birds on the garment rack feeders. As you can see, all the birds at my feeders seem to play nice and I see very little competition.

For my area , spring can be quite busy until birds settle down and start nesting - then it get`s pretty quiet at the feeders but starts to pick up again later in the summer when the adults start bringing their fledglings by. You could think about hummingbird and oriole feeders as well, that season will start pretty soon. If, as you say, your trees are on the tall side, you could consider a good tall post with hooks or a shepherd`s hook to hang your feeders - just make sure the feeder will be hanging a minimum of 5 ft off the ground. Any local cats(my scourge) will still stalk the birds but most likely will come up empty handed. Things really start to pick up again in the fall, especially if you have any berry producing trees/shrubs(mountain ash, saskatoon, chokecherry, elderberry) as fall migrants fuel up.

Feisty little birds in summer time when the males are such a bright color and are combative. Bright yellow flashes. I see them all winter in large groups at the feeders, when they're drab and not territorial. This time of year they're mostly off in the woods and fields and I rarely see them - sometimes a pair will come to the feeder, just often enough to keep me refilling the one feeder I keep up in the summer. Claire