Well, when the feeders are up and running I have five hanging feeders, plus I used to throw some seed out on the sidewalk for the small birds too shy to come into the yard and feed. (I'm not there all the time and the anti-rodent countermeasure AKA "Chunk" the cat is a little broad spectrum in his application.)

Mainly black oil sunflower seed. About forty pounds a month. After one try with the thistle seed I had a horrid weeding problem I'm still stomping out the last traces of. Until the redtail hawks moved back in to the cliffs up the street, we had a Cooper's hawk knocking back two or three house finchs a day. Would then sit in the bird feeder tree and pluck all the feathers off the finch.

After I watched that the first time I had to go apologize to the cat, who I thought was being unusually successful in his predations. But then I saw the difference in the pattern of feathers from when the cat caught one to when the hawk plucked one from seven feet up in a tree. Cats don't leave large oval patchs of feathers on the ground. But the Cooper's hawk is gone for now. Might come back next spring before the redtails do. Party for a couple of weeks, then move on.

The pigeons now are a problem. One learned to raid the feeders by using the "wing wash" from his wings to blow seeds out of the feeders. At first I didn't think it was deleberate, just an abortive landing attempt you know? Well, seven pounds of mixed seeds and the whole flock under the feeder eating later and I changed my mind.

Pigeons getting clever! Who da thunk it!

So in addition to the birds we have these grey squirrels with white bellies. A pregnant possum somewhere on the property, (cats learn not to mess with them) and now according to my across the street neighbor, a pair of skunks. The last evening I was over my parents house I was in the patio next to the feeders, and definately got a whiff of shunk. No, it wasn't the local potheads.

Seems to be a good year for salamanders as well. I'm careful lifting anything in the garden for fear of hurting something. We have those lungless kind that breathe through their skin. Arborial ones too. Mainly about four to five inchs long browns to burgundies with longitudinal stripes in a lot of cases. I had a black lab named Shasta I trained to find them. It was so ridiculously easy and so successful I'm suprised nobody else with an interest in finding cryptic animals has thought of dogs. (hint hint bigfoot) She could hear them crawling through the damp undergrowth or in the creases of the bark of trees.

__________________
In your rush to call everyone "entrenched" or closed-minded or "limited" you fail to note that the "limit" here has a very natural boundary: that point at which the evidence stops. - JayUtah

Science fiction was never meant to be an educational tool. - Editor Amazing Tales