Todd, Bill & all-- It has been my observation too that birds eat dogwood berries in the fall, long before a frost or hard freeze. A few years ago, a bumper crop drew flocks of waxwings and robins to my yard over a three to four day period of time, until every berry had been consumed. Last year, the feast all belonged to a huge flock of grackles. This fall, as Todd observed in his yard, the berry crop was poor. Squirrels were nibbling away at them in late summer and the balance were divided equally between robins and grackles. If plants are stressed, it usually follows that they will bud profusely to bear a lot of fruit and seeds for survival in the following year. But a check of my trees today didn't reassure me . I also noticed that some berries had even dried up on the branches. But this summer's drought may be only partially to blame. Our prolonged wet spring/early summer provided ideal conditions for dogwoods to be attacked by anthracnose, which botanists claim will eventually wipe out all of our eastern native dogwoods. I also have a lot of American hollies on my property, but they don't seem to bear too profusely ( maybe they're all male, or all female, maybe too much shade, maybe lack of pollinating insects, I don't know). But there's enough there to lure small flocks of bluebirds and waxwings to the yard off and on during the winter months. Although I favor native plant species, I have added seven Nellie Steven hollies this year which I hope will produce an abundance of berries to augment the food supply for wintering birds. Another fall food source no one has mentioned thus far, is the poison ivy berry. I have poison ivy vines entering the canopies of old Virginia pines which eventually means death for the pines, but an ecologist has advised me that the poison ivy is the more beneficial to wildlife. So far, I haven't interferred. Finally, the same ecologist leading a field trip a year ago fall, pointed out that the berries of the spice bush are among the least nutritional and the last to be consumed. Ralph Wall Great Falls, Va.