Birds at the Feeders

At it's heart Oakwood, as the name would imply, is an oak woods with houses tucked in between the huge, craggy old Burr Oaks, Quercus macrocarpa. The birds don't seem to care that there are houses here. They are just interested in shelter and available food. We have the usual suspects that are here year round - three species of woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, etc. Winter brings flocks down from the boreal forests and northern tundra. There are large flocks of thistle seed eaters - juncos, siskins, common redpolls and hoary redpolls. I'm going through about 20 pounds of niger thistle a week. The only reason it isn't much more is that the birds are limited by peg space at the feeders. I could buy more feeders I suppose, but it's time they learned that we are in tough economic times, even for birds.