Where are the critters?

I’m hoping maybe there’s an expert out there who can answer my question: Where are all the critters?

For years, I’ve had bird feeders out. I have a suet feeder hanging from the eaves of my house, and it’s visited by woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees. I have a cylindrical sunflower seed feeder hanging from a tree in the back yard that’s visited by finches, chickadees, sparrows, blue jays and a pair of cardinals. Usually, I have mourning doves feeding on the ground under the feeder.

I have a squirrel feeder on the same tree that holds a corn cob. Squirrels and blue jays like the corn, and so does the occasional crow. In the wet spring I sometimes have a duck waddle up and eat the corn that falls on the ground. I put a little pile of sunflower seeds on my front porch, and a little chipmunk comes and takes that.

Until this year. I haven’t put suet in the suet cage for weeks now, and I very seldom fill the sunflower feeder I don’t change the corn cob more than every several days now. Nobody’s eating anything. Where is everybody? I’ve never seen a winter like this one. Can anyone tell me what’s going on?

Cindy Carusi

Orono