There Is a Reason For This

Three weeks ago I was obliged to purchase a new suet product, my preferred "Hot Pepper" cake being out of stock everywhere I looked. Once these "High Energy" cakes hit the feeder stations, I watched consumption drop sharply. Some species (Robins, Catbirds) essentially disappeared from my feeders, and others visit much less often. The suet basket pictured was visited twice yesterday, according to BirdCam photos. And overall I am averaging less than one cake every five days, in contrast to once every other day a month ago. It's really slower consumption because one feeder is getting squirrel traffic. So what is the deal? It could be late summer-early fall dropoff. My suet numbers always slow in fall. But the change in consumption corresponded perfectly with the switchover in early August. And, I must note how suspicious I was that this suet product was not only "specially priced" at both dealers I visited, but was unusually abundant---cases of the stuff were everywhere. There is a reason for this. Someone in inventory needed to unload a dog. And I fell for the skunking. We learn, and move on.