Spring is arriving here in North Mississippi, which means many of the birds who have crowded the feeders outside my window all winter are heading North. Just this week, the goldfinches left.  Monday or Tuesday there were two dozen or more clamoring and jostling  for a place on the large thistle seed sock. But I noticed that instead of their winter olive color they were starting to turn gold, and I never get to see them turn entirely gold.  Today there are no goldfinches, and just a few purple/house finches.  I will leave the thistle sock up as long as I see any of them.

There are fewer customers, too, for the black sunfower seeds, although the squirrels snatch as many as they can.  I will leave them out for migrating birds for another month. Last year I had a huge flock of Rose-breasted grosbeaks stay and eat for two weeks or more, the first time I had ever seen them.  I was amused at how they drove away the pesky squirrels. No squirrel stole a single seed as long as they were around.  When they left, the males left a week before the females.

I leave the suet feeders up year-round.  Four different kinds of woodpeckers eat from them and feed their young from them, and they are such magnificent birds to see closely.

It is sad, though, to look out now, at what five days ago was a maelstorm of bird feeding activity, and see two cardinals having a leisurely meal.