OK, you all are making me laugh! Low cal venison stew? Votives in the eye sockets? Sheesh! You'd have to be serious off-kilter (as opposed to perfectly sane and rational, like me) to come up with something like that! :o) Thanks for the link Meldy! I think chickadees, nuthatches, wrens and titmice, all of which are abundant in our yard and build nests in our trees, are our best bets. I don't know where I got it or if it's even true, but I am working on the belief that birds will peck away at the skulls to get calcium they need to strengthen their egg shells. I hope so. I'm ready to have them and their broods back in my midst...

SK, great little vid! It clearly shows one of the things I find most endearing about titmice. Their tiny beaks aren't strong enough to crack a sunflower seed like a cardinal does, so they tend to take the seeds one at a time to a nearby branch, hold them between their feet and hammer away at them until the seed cracks open and they can get the meat. So cute! Scott, the goldfinches can show up in your yard at various times, since their migration back north can be affected by weather and other factors. The easiest thing to do is keep plenty of regular birdseed mixes (heavy on black oiler sunflower seeds) in your feeders and watch for them. When you see a few at the feeder, you can hang out your thistle socks for them. (They will readily eat normal seed mixes, though they love thistle the best.) They will often spend such a long time in my yard that I get to watch them molt into their breeding plumage. They arrive gray and black, begin to get yellow spots here and there, and then leave bright canary yellow and black. It's really neat. Good luck! Marcia

Ahhh, got lots of pesky sparrows here but the even peskier grackles keep them in check. The mockingbirds and great kiskadees then in turn keep the grackles in check. While the big birds are fighting amongst themselves the little hummies zip, zing and zoom around without any fear. The hummies are pretty territorial and they have staked out the eastside yard and backyard. I've seen them chase off mockingbirds from the fruit trees back there! I don't have it in me to kill off a bird - even a pesky sparrow...but I have resorted to removing sparrow nests from my birdhouses - everytime I see them starting to build - I grab the ladder and chase them away. They built nests in the neighbor's birdhouses :o) ~ Cat

My DS was 6-7 and home from school sick in bed. We had a snow and everything was covered and freezing cold outside. DS called me into the bedroom and told me to look out at the bird on the telephone wire. The poor thing looked like he was frozen to the wire, but apparently not because after a while as we watched, he appeared to fall to the ground. DS asked me to go see what was wrong with the bird. So of course I bundled up, put on boots and gloves and went out on rescue. I brought the bird in and we could see that he had a grain of corn stuck in his throat. I managed to dislodge it and he was then ready to go. I let him out the door and he flew away. I've forgotten many of the things DS did to aggravate me, but I still remember that day when he had to know that one bird was helped. He is still like that, very caring. Sue