Happy Monday Everyone....I thought of all the previous postings out there when I read this...
Subject: Bird Feeder
I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed.
What a beauty of a bird feeder it is as I filled it lovingly with seed.
Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous
flow of free and easily accessible food.
But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio,
above the table, and next to the barbecue. Then came the poop. It was
everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, the table...everywhere! Then some
of the birds turned mean. They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even
though I had fed them out of my own pocket.
And others birds were boisterous and loud. They sat on the feeder and
squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I
fill it when it got low on food.
After a while, I couldn't even sit on my own back porch anymore. So I took
down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up
their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio.
Soon, the back yard was like it used to be...quiet, serene and no one
demanding their rights to a free meal. Now let's see..... our government
gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, and free
education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen.
Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went
up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families; you
have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor; your child's
2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn't
speak English.
Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to "press one" to hear my
bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than "Old Glory"
are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free
liberties.
Just my opinion, but maybe it's time for the government to take down the
bird feeder. If you agree, pass it on; if not, continue cleaning up the poop!
"Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps if you're not willing to move your feet."
Posted on Mon, 11/26/2007 - 16:43 — by CoolMonkey
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 243
i agree...
but, i bought a bird feeder, spend $ 40 on wood one, natural + food, guess what. no birds. they have not found it! may be to many cats around?
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 4
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=sEJfS1v- fU0
have a happy and a laugh
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 1851
But some people won't stop Cool Monkey. I kind of agree with you that you are not helping the birds by making it easy for them so they don't have to go get their food like other birds. Then there's all the problems like you said. My wife insists on throwing bird seed out near our front porch. I bought a $40 wooden bird house too but they only care about the food. They won't come just for the house. I've walked up to the front more than once to see a big rat scurrying away too. Then there's this big hawk that actually sits on top of my wife's car. We chased him off once, but he'll sit in the neighbor's tree waiting for us to leave. Once he even dive-bombed us, scared the beejeebies out of me. I don't know if he's after the doves, the rats, or me?
Bird feeders are a big mess, but my wife really enjoys watching them from the window so I don't have the heart to stop it. If the darn hermit crabs wouldn't spend so much time under the sand, she probably wouldn't need to feed the birds. I blame the hermit crabs.
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 65
We've had a pair of falcons using a nest box off and on for 8 years now. The box was ignored for the first 3 years. So, we repositioned it and it's been used every year since except one.
If the hawk that hangs out on your wife's car is a Cooper's Hawk, it's interested in the doves. We had a neighbor that raced pigeons. When the Cooper's Hawk was in the vicinity, he kept his birds in.
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 1851
That's interesting. I'm not an audubon society bird expert, so you might be right about the cooper's hawk. We are calling it a hawk, but it could be any of those big hunting type birds. It's very bold, and was even sitting right on the wrought iron railing of our front porch like he owned it and barely leaves until you get very close. I'm looking at a picture of it on my wife's cell phone camera, but it's not the best quality. I can see how big it is. I told my wife that he may be after the doves and she feels real bad now. She just read about the cooper's hawk and it says they stalk and capture birds at bird feeders. She thinks she may have seen the hawk flying away with something in it's clutches and assumed it was a rat, but now she's worried it was her dove friend she named Betsy. I think my wife just realized she wasn't feeding the doves, but was essentially feeding the coopers hawk. She's a little bummed now because every time one of her doves disappeared she thought it flew south for the winter. Thanks for that info about the coopers hawk. As usual, it looks like the real winner in this is the rat.
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1147
Boy, CoolMonkey shares an allegorical story about illegal immigration and you guys ignore the symbolism. I'll have to admit though, you do learn a lot about wildlife here on these forums. Hawks, falcons, pigeons, doves, giant spider webs in Texas, tarantulas, scorpions, owls and their pellets, cougars, coyotes and chupacbras. I feel like I could walk into the Alexander Lindsay Museum and apply for a job.
Hey, if your wife needs some kind of critters besides the birds to keep her occupied and the hermit crabs spend too much of their time under the sand, why don't you get some scorpions and tarantulas from ArachnidGuy and keep them around the house without cages? She'll be plenty busy and you'll never have to worry about a cricket infestation.
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 43
LOL Thank you...I was gonna say something. But I figured I would watch and see where this thread would go. I was beginning to think no one was reading to the end.
I do have to admit when I first started reading it. I thought it was going to be just another email. I alomost did not finish it.
Totally not what I expected. The first thing I thought of when I "completely" read the original email someone sent me, was the thread I read out there last week or so on the pittsburg conversations about Mexican Flags flying in downtown.
Someone else reads it and see's something totally different.
I could not believe what my email sparked.
"Do not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps if you're not willing to move your feet."
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1147
Actually I was just giving BazookaJoe a bad time. Knowing him he intentionally steered the conversation away from yet another hot button topic that had the potential to turn ugly. Besides, like you said, it had been thrashed in the Pittsburg thread already.
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 1851
I haven't lost the symbolism, nor have I tried to sway the thread from becoming an immigration issue. I think other people just didn't get my symbolism. If the doves are supposed to be the immigrants looking for a handout you can't blame them for taking advantage of it when, "we the people," make the opportunity available to them. I guess the rat would symbolize, other people who are American citizens following the immigrants and seeing an easy opportunity for them to get a free hand out too (i.e., "Why shouldn't I be entitled to it? I'm an American citizen for crying out loud!"). The rat will always be around because he has a little more clout.
Note too, that I blamed the hermit crabs for all this mess, not "we the people," because you know that would be just too much responsibilty for our fragile psyches to to bear. We the people are innocent. The hermit crabs, represent the federal government who like the crabs, tend to bury their heads in the sand and sometimes their whole bodies for weeks on end. They call that "Molting." Occasionally, when things seem to be going well, they will reappear to fatten themselves up after shedding their skin, which represents their responsibility in all this.
The coopers hawk represents the only balancing force we have to keep everything from getting out of control. If it wasn't for the cooper's hawk, the birds getting a freehand would truly be living in the nirvana and paradise they envisioned when they came here. If it wasn't for the coopers hawk, nobody would ever go south. They would just hang out here with only northern migration. Some people would have you believe global warming is responsible for the northern migration because of climate changes, but that's just a smokescreen put out by the people who have their heads in the sand. Be aware of people picking subterranean things out of their ears.
Sometimes you try to make things better, but you in turn end up making things worse. At least we are still compassionate people. I don't know what the answer is, but you can't fool mother nature.
I don't know where the "We the people" reference came from. it's like a little birdy randomly told me. LOL
Edited 11/27/2007 10:18 am by BazookaJoe
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1147
WOW!! I had no idea the story was so ripe with symbolism and you embellished on it beautifully. For a minute there I thought I was back in school and the teacher was explaining the symbolism in "Lord of the Flies"
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 1851
LOL! I left the chupacabre out so the more skeptical people wouldn't claim it was just fiction.
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 65
...As usual, it looks like the real winner in this is the rat.
LOL! Yeah, never underestimate those rats.
Doves are pretty powerful flyers. The Cooper's Hawks are good for short bursts of speed and quick changes in direction. If the Doves get a head start, the Cooper's Hawk doesn't have a chance!
If your wife wants to give the Doves a fighting chance, she needs to put the feed someplace where the Cooper's Hawk can't lurk close by. The Cooper's Hawk needs to eat too though.
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1
We are one of the richest nations in the world. Many of our corporations have entered into Mexico, and other 3rd world nations with NAFTA and other treaties to make record profits to the demise of our workforce that cannot compete with desperate workers willing to do the same jobs at low pay and long hours.
then our news media and citizens blame those seeking better lives, as did our ancestors, by coming here and seeking our good christian aid to better their lives. The media and many people who proclaim their christianity and subservience to the divine master and great feeder of masses, while passing on emails such as these, demanding that we stop being a charitable nation, and instead embrace anger toward these faceless people. The fact that this writer puts some quote by "the Lord" does more damage to the context of christianity than these people are doing to our economy.
I think that it isn't really charity if it is easy and doesn't test us spiritually in some manner. This issue has been ridden by the likes of Lou Dobbs and Charlie Daniels, who both proclaim themselves as christian, yet what message did Jesus tell us to carry? To deny those who seek succor?
I think that this is a terrible issue, and I don't know the answer. I know that comparing people to birds is not really accurate or appropriate. Some people have used that argument to justify stopping aid to starving nations in Africa, or even in regions, such as Appalachia, or New Orleans, post-Katrina, saying that these people if they are fed, will only reproduce and create more hunger...and I can't get my head around viewing people in this manner, as if they are pests, or rodents...
I live and teach in an area that is heavilly populated with immigrants, and I've never seen a classroom where 50% of the students didn't speak English, so I'm not sure where these numbers come from...other than to say they must come from the emotions of people trying to enflame the emotions of other people.
If my response offends you, then good, maybe it will make you think. Either way, you don't have to pass it on, just know that I am one christian who believes that my faith tries me on a regular basis to change the way I think...less like a sheep, and more like a lamb.
One Voice crying out in the wilderness. Christianity is not about church and social programming; it is about giving love, always.
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 138
:)