"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
I have a bird feeder. It's called a lawn. Got ready to go out to the garden
this morning, but when I looked out the front window, there were 218
billion birds having some sort of feast on the lawn. Maybe I'm exaggerating
and it was only 183 million. More than I've ever seen on my lawn at one
time. I decided to read the newspaper for 1/2 hour until they're done.

I don't understand the fascination with bird feeders. I don't live in a
wildlife sanctuary. I'm in a "regular neighborhood". There's no shortage
of birds. Friends who have feeders don't seem to attract anything more
exotic than what I see in my yard. This is upstate NY. What do some people
hope to attract with their feeders? Cockatiels?


When the first robins arrive my lawn looks invaded by zillions of worm
hunters. When I mow masses of swallows swarm all about my tractor. The
only bird feeding I do is a few slices of bread for the pair of Canada geese
that come to my deck three times a day, and very occasionally wild turkeys
come by for a snack... they like dry cat food. There is no need for bird
feeders in rural areas. Even in winter birds find plenty of food, and even
at temps below zero water still flows in culverts under roadways where deer
hoofs break up surface ice where they exit from below ground and there are
lots of openings around beaver dams... plus there is always food and water
at all the many livestock farms. And the squirrels aren't existing on my
few peanuts alone... just yesterday I walked into my Norway spruce windbreak
to check the gauge on my 500 gallon propane tank that's hidden in there and
there hidden from view are *mountains* of cones and seed husks...squirrels
are very neat, they pile their debris very uniformly, cones to the left,
husks to the right.