Dear birders --

I haven't posted in a very long while, but I now finally have a yard of my
own and am trying to attract some good backyard birds, to no avail.
Help!

I live in western Catonsville, half a mile from the No. 9 trolley trail,
which is a nice patch of woods full of woodpeckers and songbirds. Our yard
is small, but has 4 large trees along the back fence and big evergreens near
the porch and along the side fence. These evergreens positively vibrate with
sparrows, but mainly what I see in my yard is CROWS!!! Our backyard and the
trees across the street in front seem to be a regular stop for about two
dozen crows. I also see a lovely big female Cooper's Hawk in the same stand
of trees most days.

I have set up two big tube feeders (black oil sunflower seed), a suet
feeder, and a small birdbath attached to the trunk of a tree in the back
yard, and haven't yet seen a single bird on any of them. Only squirrels. Is
it the crows? The regular hawk visitors? Something else? There is plenty of
cover nearby, and one of the feeders has been up since October, so it really
should have been long enough. I am really baffled. I've set up feeders in
other places, I'm not inexperienced at this.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Lori

-- 
===========================
Lori Brown
web developer & troublemaker

It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it. - Steven Wright