Redpolls- where are you??

Last winter we had so many Redpolls (the Common Redpoll) at our niger seed bag feeders. We set up two and these feeders would be covered with Redpolls- sometimes as many as 50 birds at a time! They were constant winter visitors and once spring rolled around, they returned to their arctic home. Apparently last year was a record year for Redpolls and numbers were reported to be on the rise everywhere and our yard was a microcosm of this. Apparently the numbers are down this year and we've only seen one or two to date. Redpolls are in the finch family and apparently are similiar to the Pine Siskin, and we're seeing that at our feeders for the first time this year. We're hoping to see a few more Redpolls, but so far there's only been a few.