Oh Suzie you have begun such an important topic for discussion and I am thoroughly enjoying it. It's good to see the interesting viewpoints. I will share one of my experiences.I hope I am able to do this explanation justice. In 1976 Me and my family left NYC (my home from birth), purchased 2 acres of land in eastern Long Island, and built a modest home there. Quite rural. The property was covered with huge oak trees. You may well remember the battle across the pond. We called it the Revolutionary War. You folks probably called it the battle with the up-starts. Well the colonists needed food for their horses and a safe place to keep them on an almost nightly basis. So at the outskirts of meadows they tied sapplings together to form natural fencing. They did not undo their fencing when they moved on. Some of these survive to this day. They stand 80-100' tall and bout 20' wide. The trunks are quite gnarley and bent in uusual shapes. The property we purchased contained 4 of these magnificent monsters. By law we were not permitted to disturb the soil within 150' of one of those trees. So the house stood some 250' from the road. Quite expensive to run electric lines, etc. Annually the state of NY would send 2 arborists to visit the trees as they were more than 300 years old. Often fertilizer was applied and at one time the state did major battle with a huge population of Gypsy Moths. Under no circumstances could anyone cut, trim, or disturb any of these trees. Some 20 years ago Hurricane Gloria came whipping through. One of these magnificent brutes came down. The people who owned the property cut up the tree as it was across their driveway....when the state did their annual check..well they were fined $5000. So yes there is much needed government intervention on our side of the pond. Now that I've moved to a rural area of Washington, it amazes me at how little gov. control there is here. Boy this is a wordy post. Hope i've not bored anyone too much. Jeannie

Kind of funny story - a couple of years ago the guy across the street trotted over to show me this mysterious worm he found on his tomato plant. He wondered if it was something very rare because he had never even heard of a worm with horns and perhaps UCONN might be interested in having this specimen and maybe, just maybe, he had discovered something that could be beneficial to some plants here in tobacco valley and he could breed them and make money! He said there were many of them on his three patio tomato plants. "Whatta ya think, Jane? Should I put it in a jar?" I asked to see it in my gloved hand and as this guy was envisioning $50 bills, the silly worm reared it's head with horns and mouth seeking something to bite. I dropped it on the driveway and with a flash of my right foot, the mysterious money-making dream shrank into a bite-less green blob as my neighbor went into one of the most shocked and crestfallen expressions I'd seen in a while. I told him he had lost the horn worm lottery and to go home and squish all the others. I have a feeling that my reputation as a nice neighbor lady turned into tough old broad that day in the driveway. Squish 'em, Pixie, Squish 'em - unless you're going into the horn worm raising business. Jane (aka Hard Hearted Hannah)

I'm pretty sure this is a first year female RB Grosbeak. A family was born here this year. Just checked Cornell, and I think she should be on her way to South America. Doubt that she would listen to me, but does anyone still have any RBGs around? Of course, I could be wrong and maybe she's a hybrid Lowes/HD sparrow, but she's the only one of her kind here. Jane This post was edited by corunum on Thu, Oct 16, 14 at 17:25

I got a birdfeeder with a cylindrical baffle as shown by terrene. All cost me $200. My birds have no problem with squirrels which are not able to climb over that baffle. On the birdfeeder I have two dispensers with black sunflower seeds and one with suet. There was no demand for any other birdfood which my birds did not touch or simply shoveled to the ground. Since we view the birds from the kitchen's sliding glass door, over the deck, the feeder was placed about 8-10 ft further from the deck, also sufficiently away from pine branches. Squirrels could not jump to or drop onto the feeder. Prior to that I used a very low cost construction with the same good results : a long fence post with cedar post bolted to it for height, all covered with a 4 inch diameter 5 ft long plastic pipe. I used an upside-down plastic pale as a baffle. (make sure that the pale sits on the pipe, and that the pale has the rim cut off, or squirrels will use it for leverage. Fill up the lower part of the pipe with gravel or mice will climb up inside) Then on top of all you can bolt horizontally some wood to the cedar pole and hang all the feeders from it as you wish.