Date: 9/7/26 5:51 am From: Matt S. <accipiter22...> Subject: [MASSBIRD] September 7, 2026 Northern Essex County: Anyone else had a large drop in yardbird activity past few days?
Hi All,
I live in New Hampshire, but my yard abuts Merrimac, and, nearly, Haverhill. I've noticed that starting on Saturday the 5th there appears to have been a huge drop in bird activity in my yard, and squirrel numbers as well. Typically I need to refill my feeders daily, but the food I put out in the early evening of the 5th is still untouched, and my feeders remain full. As long as I've lived here I have never had my tube feeder last more than a day, and now we're almost at 2, and the feeder is basically untouched. I saw one chickadee one time yesterday.
I also have a Birdweather PUC that records the bird sounds in my yard, and lists them out by species with the number of times each species was heard. Around this time of year I would expect to have at least 15 species picked up, and probably closer to 20, and most of those picked up a couple dozen times. Yesterday it picked up 6 species, and most of those once or twice, aside from a Bluejay which was picked up maybe 12 times.
I thought maybe there was a raptor roosting nearby, but I did not see anything in the woods around the feeder when I looked, and other than the usual red-tailed hawks and barred owls which are always around, I have not seen anything unusual.
Anyone else in the area noticing this? Perhaps in northern Essex County? It's not from migration, since a good chunk of these birds would be residents, and I have data from previous year showing roughly what to expect. I put my feeder on a new shepherd's hook since the previous one broke, and thought maybe they did not like it, but again squirrels wouldn't probably care about this. Plus, it's not just lower feeder visits, it's my whole yard, since the listening device isn't picking up anything either.
