Hi James:

Sounds like you have your visitor narrowed down. Is the bird totally white, or does it have a brown back? Since I don’t have a reference point to narrow the size down, we’ll go by your audio description.

It could be a Red-tailed hawk. These birds have a screaming call, a white breast, but are brown on the back. There are however very light individuals, and common records of nearly all white leucanistic forms. These birds are common in our area, but don’t really hunt after dark.

Some juvenile owls screech – a very different sound from their parents typical hoot. Because they tend not to have all their adult feathers, they can look light colored. Great horned and barred owls are found in our area. Poke around on The OWL Pages below, and you can find pictures of our other common owls.

Finally, there is the barn owl. These birds are rare in our area, but not unheard of. They are white bellied, and tan on the back. If you get a better look at it, look for the heart-shaped face. If we determine this is a barn owl, the local Audubon Society will want to verify the bird and its location.

Here are a couple of web pages that have audio files that may help:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/red-tailed-hawk.html (red tailed hawk)

http://www.owlpages.com/sounds.php (recording of nearly all the owls in the world)

http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Tyto&species=alba (photos of barn owl)

If you determine what it is, let me know!

Evie Kirkwood

Hi Shirley:

Thanks for your note!

Some bluebirds migrate south, but many bluebirds are year-round residents here. Estimates are that about 1/3 of them stay here during the snowy months. I regularly see them on Audubon Christmas Bird counts in December and January in our region.

They spend the winter in wetlands and shrubby areas, where plenty of berries can be found. Red cedar, Virginia creeper, sumacs, bittersweet, dogwood and hawthorne are all native plants that feed wintering bluebirds.

Some folks supply food at winter feeders consisting of peanut butter, cornmeal mixes and mealworms. These high-fat, high protein foods are good energy sources for wintering bluebirds.

You can find lots of info about bluebirds from the North American Bluebird Society on their web site:

http://www.nabluebirdsociety.org/

Evie Kirkwood

Hi Jerry

Thanks for your note. It's hard to say what may be going on with your suet. However, if this is the first time you have hung this feeder, it may take the birds a month to find a new feeder. So you'll want to keep it in one place for awhile. If it is hung near other feeders, that will help birds find it. Then you can move it in stages to where you prefer to hang it.

What kind of suet are you using? Did you purchase a pre-packed suet from a store, or did you get raw suet from the meat counter? If the latter, it may have gotten rancid in warm weather. I render my raw suet, by melting it on the stove in water, and chilling it. The fat will float and solidify. Then I cut it into blocks and freeze it. Rendered suet lasts much longer than raw suet or fat.

Sometimes I purchase pre-packed suet in blocks and I store those in the freezer as well.

You might try smearing a bit of peanut better mixed with cornmeal on the feeder as a special enticement. The smell might attract them.

Hopefully, it's just a case of taking the birds some time to find the treat; be patient, and they will find it soon.

Evie Kirkwood

Hi Jon:

Thanks for your note. The photos were great. The tree you have is one of my favorites. It's a sycamore. Typically they grow where the water table is fairly shallow. These stately trees line some of our rivers and streams. As they get older, they slough off their bark in patches, creating a sort of camouflaged look. Your tree, which is still fairly small as sycamores go, is starting to do this. Large sycamores have nearly white smooth bark. The round spiky seed pods on older trees are good food sources for birds.

Enjoy your tree!

Evie Kirkwood

Dear Fran:

Thanks for the photo of the Columbine with single and double flowers. I'm not an expert on non-native garden plants, but I consulted with Master Gardener Anita Messina. Columbines often re-seed freely. It's possible that you had a "double" variety (a horticultural cultivar) which seeded itself and is reverting back to its more natural single-flowered state. If you didn't have Columbine planted here, it's possible an animal brought in the seeds, or they came in a pot with another plant.

Hope that helps!

Evie Kirkwood