For days, Georgia has experienced exceptionally warm and wet weather. This weather has caused a host of problems for backyard gardeners and wildlife enthusiasts. Who would have ever thought that during mid-January, regardless of where we live in the Peach State, we would be dealing with temperatures soaring into the 70s and a continuous dose of rain ranging from a heavy mist to severe thunderstorms?

       As a result, in my yard, daffodils are blooming far too early. Blanket flowers and sweet alyssum are also blooming and garden plants are sprouting in my flowerbeds. These developments do not bode well for many of these plants, as next week they will suffer when temperatures plummet into the 20s.

       We should also be concerned about the health of the birds visiting our feeders. It has been so warm and wet seeds in hopper, tube, and platform feeders are sprouting before the birds have a chance to eat them. In addition, any birds dining on our seed offerings in or below our feeders can be exposed to deadly bacterial and fungal diseases. The reason for this is warm, moist weather creates a perfect environment for the spread of salmonella and aspergillosis and other diseases; they thrive on wet seeds and discarded seed hulls.

       With that in mind, we all need to assess feeding conditions at our seed feeders. If we think we might have a problem, we need to act promptly to remedy the situation before we begin to see sick and dead birds in our yards.

       For more information on how you can deal with this problem, go to the Search bubble on the right side of the blog. Type in Feeders and hit return key; immediately all of the blogs I have written concerning addressing problems at bird feeders will pop up.