The Avian Menace

Bird watching is a hobby that sounds awfully strange to anyone who hasn’t gone out in to actual “wilderness” hoping to see cool wild animals. You very rarely see the type of neat animals that one seeks out at the zoo, but what you do see is birds. I can see how this could lead the aspiring animal viewer to decide to seek out birds, as you’re a lot less likely to be disappointed than, let’s say, going on an all day tiger trek, and having the highlight being a chicken running across a 10 meter path.

Now I haven’t capitulated to the point where I go out looking for birds, but in lieu of daily bobcat viewings, Lorna and I did set up several bird feeders (two standard, two humming bird). The initial results were very encouraging, as we attracted lots of cute little birds:

Unfortunately cute little birds where replaced with, IMO rather ugly bigger birds.

I apparently don’t have a picture of these guys on the feeder, but a dozen or more of them would show up and just pillage the feeder in a matter of a few hours. One of the feeders had little doors that could be closed over the access points that made for a much smaller feeding hole. This didn’t stop the ugly big bird, they just destroyed the feeder and ate the food off the ground:

As much as I like the cute little birds, I’m not sure it’s worth it to keep them full for the likes of those savage pidgeon-like-birds. Perhaps I could get a more solid feeder, or perhaps I have another solution…