Do your bird feeders attract large, hungry flocks? The single feeder that Gail Kansky has on her Hull, Massachusetts deck does, and according to the Patriot Ledger, those flocks are causing problems for the neighborhood. The town is pursuing legal action against Kansky on the basis that the regular flocks of gulls, pigeons and sparrows have become a public health hazard because of bird feces as well as rats attracted to the food.
This is not the first bird feeding complaint made against Kansky, and she has recently scaled down her feeding activities, but the town now wants her to stop completely.
Do you agree that a town has the right to forcibly stop a resident from feeding the birds on private property? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Feeding House Sparrows
Photo © Matt MacGillivray
Comments
I believe that a town has the right to insist a person keep their property rat and rodent free, and in such condition as not to be a public health threat. If the bird feeders are attracting rodents, and the bird feces is building up to the point of a public health concern, I think *those* are the issues the town needs to address with the property owner. She needs to keep the area reasonably clean of bird feces (not to say she needs to diaper the birds, or run out and clean up every time a bird leaves a “present” but two to three times a day clean-up is reasonable), and she needs to eliminate seed spillage that would attract vermin.
If she is unable or unwilling to do this, then I do think the town is within their rights to ban her from feeding the birds.
On the other hand, that decision should be made by people who understand bird feeding and the drawbacks inherent in it. If there are a half dozen droppings on her deck, or one lonesome field mouse that is feeding on the spilled seed, that does not constitute a health threat.
It seems she is working with them, so unless I heard more about the reason why they still want her to stop feeding the birds. I would say they shouldn’t be trying to force her to stop feeding the birds
I feed birds, and yes sometimes I get 20 or 30 sparrows and some black birds, but we also get and feed the Humming birds and house finches. They do leave droppings and the one little mouse that is here but we keep our yard clean by sweeping up the droppings and cast off food. so it is not a big deal.
I think what she’s doing is great, let her keep feeding the birds, humans make much more mess than birds do, I support her 100%.
I can sympathize with her neighbors being a little upset over the birds if they are that bad. I quit feeding all but the hummingbirds two years ago.
I loved watching the birds at my feeders but then we started getting the mice that were attracted to the bird food. The mice decided they needed a nice warm place to sleep and multiply so they took up residence in my basement. We trapped 18 of those pesky critters! The end of the bird feeders was when we started getting snakes that were attracted to the mice. I cut every bird feeder down and threw them away.