I have been reading with great jealousy all the increased Common Redpoll sightings on FB & Ohio Birds showing up at bird feeders especially on the east side of Cleveland.  I was upstairs this morning and looked out on the ground under the thistle feeder and saw some good prospects.  I went downstairs and found I had six(6)COMMON REDPOLLS under the thistle feeder, on the thistle feeder, some on the hanging tube black oilseed feeder and sometimes under that starting after 8:10am.  They seem to go away and come back periodically.  I had to quickly refill the feeders especially the thistle feeder which has been going down quickly lately.  I noticed they have been making a mess under the thistle feeder the last couple days but I am at work all day and didn't see what was going on.

I have a story which I tried to post on Rarebird in Dec but they wouldn't let my post go through.  I have had winters when I only had one Goldfinch all winter.  I never could figure out what was wrong until I read a posting about bad feed in December on Rarebird.  I googled it and figured out that thistle goes bad real quick.  I purchased new thistle and a bag of finch seed (which is chipped sunflower, canary seed and thistle)from a well known garden store that sells Oliger Seed out of Akron and mixed it up when putting in feeder. I immediately started seeing more Goldfinch and even Juncos and was thrilled with that.  I even bought a new $14.00 thistle feeder (great price) from Lowe's which has copper on it and has five perches (places for 10 birds)in anticipation for more birds.  After Hurricane Sandy I had up to eight Pine Siskins for eight days when I never see them much in my suburban neighborhood and they would only spend time at the black oilseed
 tube feeder or under it.  They would never come to the thistle which now I know why.

Nancy Anderson
Richmond Hts, OH
Northeastern Cuyahoga County
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nancy_a/

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