Could that make this an exceptionally good year for food availability in
the wild, causing a more spectacular absence of birds in yards? If so, I
wonder if someone knows the conditions out there. That could be answer.
On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 9:05 AM John Dillon <kisforkryptonite...>
wrote:
> All,
>
> Keep in mind that declines at feeders this time of year are normal while
> birds take advantage of natural fall food supplies and while serious cold
> fronts have yet to occur.
>
> JD
>
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Nov 24, 2025, at 8:11 AM, Nancy L Newfield via groups.io <nancy=
> <casacolibri.net...> wrote:
> >
> > Sandra,
> >
> > I doubt that bird flu is the answer, or not entirely. Bird flu would
> > affect different types of birds differently. Birds that flock closely
> > together would spread it and we would be finding dead birds in our yards
> or
> > see them dead around the neighborhood. Hummingbirds should not be
> affected
> > because they are so anti-social. I had 2 sightings of a Buff-bellied
> last
> > week in spite of having a really good hummer garden this year. My last
> > southwardly migrating Ruby-throated was 19 October. Usually, I continue
> to
> > attract some tardy migrants into late October, if not November.
> >
> > NLN
> >
> >> On Mon, Nov 24, 2025 at 6:58 AM Sandra Barbier <sandabar10...>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> Thanks for answering. Flu may be it. I also read a little on the net and
> >> it said birds don't use feeders as much when there is plentiful food in
> the
> >> wild, which led me to think about our lack of hurricanes this year, and
> >> whether that left more food for them in forests, etc., but we didn't
> have
> >> any hurricanes last year, either, in southeast or southwest Louisiana
> and I
> >> don't think you are affected by hurricanes very often in Shreveport.
> Also,
> >> would that explain their near total absence from yards as a whole? I was
> >> moved to ask the question because the man in Crowley notices his birds
> and
> >> is conscientious about feeding them, and he was concerned. The feeders
> >> aren't touched and he has found a couple of dead birds. He has frozen
> them
> >> but he doesn't know how or where to send them. His opinion is they don't
> >> use the rice fields so they are not being poisoned there. I haven't fed
> or
> >> watched birds in my yard for months, so I can't say for certain if they
> are
> >> here or not. I put out seed for squirrels. Could they be a problem?
> When I
> >> do look out late in the day there may be the mockingbird and a dove or
> once
> >> in a while a cardinal, wren or blue jay. I sometimes see a house
> sparrow. I
> >> did see a phoebe a couple of times just in the past two weeks. And Nan,
> I
> >> did see two hummingbirds in late October when I had some Turk's cap. My
> >> yard here in LaPlace has never been very birdy, not like it was in
> Marrero,
> >> except for goldfinches in winter five-ten years ago. I also used to have
> >> dogs, but now occasionally a cat wanders through or skulks awhile. For
> me,
> >> what's missing are small flocks of doves, chickadees, house finches,
> black
> >> birds and lots of grackles.
> >>
> >> On Sun, Nov 23, 2025 at 8:04 PM Nancy L Newfield <nancy...>
> >
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Sandra et al,
> >>>
> >>> I'm glad you brought this up. Here in suburban Metairie, the showing
> of
> >>> birds has been the worst I've ever seen. Since moving to the New
> Orleans
> >>> area in 1970, I've kept mostly regular handwritten notes on the avian
> >>> activity that I experience. There are about 45 notebooks, plus 4
> looseleaf
> >>> binders and more recently just checklists that I have created for
> daily use
> >>> and different ones for banding trips. The quality of the notes
> varies, but
> >>> I've aspired to be as accurate as possible, following guidelines that I
> >>> learned from a couple of birding courses that I took years ago, and
> from a
> >>> paper that Van Remsen published way back when.
> >>>
> >>> Now that we have eBird, I've worked at transcribing much of those notes
> >>> into eBird and have noticed a few other times when avian traffic was
> really
> >>> slow, but nothing like the dearth of birds at this time. Today, I've
> >>> counted 35 individual birds of 8 species. There was 1 small flock of 8
> >>> American Robins, the first I've seen here since November 2023. The
> >>> demographics and housing have changed a few times over my tenure at
> this
> >>> location, and never for the better, but we do still have some nice
> trees
> >>> and my hummer garden has been '*primo*', with only 1 recent hummer that
> >>> I saw twice.
> >>>
> >>> The birds are not here.
> >>>
> >>> NLN
> >>>
> >>> On Sun, Nov 23, 2025 at 6:01 PM Sandra Barbier via groups.io
> <sandabar10=
> >>> <gmail.com...> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Someone I know in Crowley says he has not seen any birds in his yard
> >>>> recently. I think he means migrants and locals. Has anyone else
> noticed
> >>>> this and if so, do you know why it may be? I am thinking drought,
> maybe.
> >>>> Found this recent map of drought Louisiana Drought Deepens: 43% of
> State
> >>>> Now Affected — Louisiana Farm Bureau News
> >>>> <
> >>>>
> https://lafarmbureaunews.com/news/2025/11/20/louisiana-drought-deepens-43-of-state-now-affected > >>>>>
> >>>> that
> >>>> shows he is in an area marked "severe drought." Thanks.--
> >>>>
> >>>> Sandra Barbier
> >>>> LaPlace, LA
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >>> Nancy L Newfield
> >>> Casa Colibrí
> >>> Metairie, Louisiana USA
> >>> <nancy...>
> >>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Sandra Barbier
> >> LaPlace, LA
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> > --
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > Nancy L Newfield
> > Casa Colibrí
> > Metairie, Louisiana USA
> > <nancy...>
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
