When I was growing up, we never had wildlife feeders outside. You didn't need them. I lived in farm country, and on the edge of farm country at that. In front of the house, there were fields and fields of wheat. Behind the house, there was nothing but forest. A wildlife feeder would have been unnecessary – all I had to do was to wander into the wild.
When I moved into the city, however, things were much different. By the time I was 15, I was bored to tears by the farm country. I never realized how much I would miss it once it was gone. Nowadays, I don't see anything but pigeons and squirrels. My job keeps me busy most days, and by the weekend I am too tired to take a road trip out into the country. It is slow and subtle, but the city is crushing my soul one step at a time.
I never would have thought of wildlife feeders as a possible solution on my own. You see, my grandmother had a supposedly squirrel proof bird feeder. It wasn't. The squirrels would get the bird feed every time, and who wanted to feed squirrels? It wasn't like there weren't enough of them already! I actually wouldn't have gotten the idea if I hadn't been asked to babysit my sister's dog for the weekend. She was relieved to have me there. She was a gadget maniac, and she usually used an automatic pet feeder to take care of her dog. Then, all she had to do was let the dog go in and out through the doggie door to do his business.
Unfortunately, the automatic pet feeder was broken and she needed someone to watch her dog. The dog was so used to that automatic feeder that every time he was hungry he would run over to it. Even after I had been there for a few days, he didn't quite understand the food came from me and not the feeder machine. That is when I first started thinking about getting wildlife feeders. Maybe they could work after all!
That very next day, I went and looked at wildlife feeders at a sporting goods store. It turns out that many of them are designed for hunters, but some of them are still made for people who simply want to have more critters in their yards. I bought a hummingbird feeder, and tried it out the next day. I have had hummingbirds in my yard ever since!
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