I understand the desire and fun of birdfeeding, but also the reason for
banning it - houses in urban areas are frequently overrun by mice and rats
as a result of birdfeeders (and people that leave pet food outdoors, etc.).
The decline in operating budgets for most cities over the last few years has
led most of them to discontinue their rodent control programs, meaning that
homeowners are left on their own to deal with this problem, and the HOA may
have felt they had no choice. Among other problems, the seeds that fall to
the ground are taken by mice and stored in insulation for the winter, which
creates an unholy mess. I realize this won't be a popular position among
birdwatchers, but being one myself and also having had to rip out my
insulation ($3000+) and deal with mice and seed caches in my house year
after year as a result of my neighbor feeding birds, I understand the
downside.



On another level, we all know the problems associated with feeding ducks and
geese at the park. Neighborhood bird-feeding is not really all that
different; it tends to benefit invasive species (including squirrels,
rodents, starlings, etc.) and those comfortable in urban environments more
than it does native species. The most ecologically sound approach to
attracting birds to your yard is to plant an abundance of native plants that
the birds would naturally eat and which do not create an attractive nuisance
for rodents. I know how much enjoyable it is, and I'd like to do it myself,
but I don't for these reasons.



Teresa Michelsen

Olympia, WA



From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of
nightwings406 at aol.com
Sent: Friday, July 23, 2010 8:27 AM
To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] HOA's



The board of my homeowner's association just banned birdfeeding in our
neighborhood. If anyone has some help for me to fight this I would
appreciate them contacting me on my e-mail.

Thank you, Donna Ferrill

Mill Creek