Hermit Thrush in our backyard in NE Atlanta |
With this natural change comes the exodus of the migrating birds like the ruby throated hummingbird and the gray catbird. We are still waiting for the ingress our winter birds such as the dark eyed junco and the many warblers that make their way here. And of course we have a sizable amount of wild birds that don't migrate at all... they just disappeared.
Where did all the non-migratory wild birds go?
Here at the Wild Bird Center of Johns Creek we notice this trend every year. Right after Labor Day it's like a light switch being turned off and the amount of seed sold drops drastically. If the conventional thinking is we do not have a tremendous number of wild birds that migrate from NE Atlanta in the fall - what's up?
My explanation: This is nature being nature.
One of the first sights and sounds we have of fall arriving is not leaves falling, it's acorns falling by the bucketful. Some years we can get 3" of acorns in our beautiful backyard. At the same time, in the early fall, our dogwoods start producing little red berries. Our serviceberry bushes are fruiting. Frost grapes are starting to form. Coneflowers are dying. Hollies are fruiting. All this is happening just as the first fall leaves are dropping.
What does this have to do with our missing birds?
That's simple, all those fruiting grapes, hollies, dogwoods, serviceberries, trees with their multitude of tree nuts, and dead coneflowers are... WILD BIRD FOOD! So where are "my" birds? Simple, they are still around but don't need much of the additional food a wild bird feeder provides. You'll see the same thing with suet cakes. This time of year, even though it can get pretty cold the wild birds have plenty of places to eat so your suet cake could last for weeks.
All of this ends once the natural food has been consumed. Once it gets a bit harder for the wild birds to easily find food they will return in their flocks to yours (and my) beautiful backyard.
PS: This post was stimulated by a customer asking me a few hours ago... "What's wrong with my sunflower hearts, have they spoiled? I don't have any birds!"
David Peterson is the owner of the Best Nest of Georgia, Inc. which includes in its corporate family a retail store called the Wild Bird Center of Johns Creek Georgia. The Wild Bird Center focuses on bringing nature to your backyard using bird seed, bird feeders, mealworms, and bird houses to attract wild birds to your yard. You can reach the Wild Bird Center at 770-418-1990 or by contacting David via email: david@thebestnest.net