Nearly zero activity (1 Viewer)

Until about six weeks ago, I had very high level of activity with a variety of birds. Then, as I mentioned in another post, some sort of bird of prey (might have been a kite) made some appearances; at that point the activity declined quite a bit, but not to zero. Three weeks ago, my wife and I went on a two week vacation; I filled the feeder before we left, but when we came back it was at exactly the same level as when we left. Until a few days ago, there wasn't a single bird. Now, we see a single finch a few times a day but it never stays long.

Can all this be attributed to the raptor -- who, by the way, hasn't been seen in a while? By coincidence, a few other things took place at about the same time

• I switched brands of seed. Had been using Wagner de-shelled sunflower seeds, switched to bulk Royal Wing...but still de-shelled sunflower.
  
• We had a storm with 60 mile an hour winds. Maybe it blew apart nests?
  
• It was September...maybe the birds just grew up and moved on?

They were a lot of fun to watch, trying to figure out what to do - if anything - that might bring them back.

Thanks!

We are in fall harvest time, and we are in the same area. Right now all the birds are eating the wild berries, nuts, seeds, fruits that freshly available to them. They always prefer food in the wild over our backyard buffets. Take this time to give your feeders a good soaking, and clean your feeding areas.

They will start coming back when the cold fronts start rolling thru the northern areas above us. What I've noticed in the past is that when the birds start coming back, I always get new stuff I havent seen before, or havent seen in a long time. Last fall I started getting a lot of Cedar Waxwings. I get a lot of Warblers too in the fall