Who feeds the birds in winter?

[Humppa]

Benjamin Sheridan, Crosman and Beeman have been keeping the rodent population down in north western Harford county for about the past ten years (and that includes some of the feathered variety). Before that, it was Daisy when I was a kid. Andi, I'm guessing an air rifle would be okay where you are? I've heard of some denizens of Baltimore keeping the cat sized rodents (not cats, but RATS that big) under control in B-more with some air rifles...

Still like the songbirds. My little brother has two cockatiels, and he sits them on the deck to get some sun or did during the summer and early fall, in their cage. Even with the patio doors open, they could hear the birds outside. They've got the different bird calls down to a t, pretty good for young ones, and can mimic most birds (they were terrified when they heard a hawk for the first time). In addition to whistling, that's all they can do at the moment. Oh yeah, they love R2D2 from Star Wars, I almost choked on my drink when I was watching Empire Strikes Back while laid up, and they went nuts everytime R2D2 made a sound.

An air rifle would be nice, but it´s not legal here to hunt any animal without permission by law - means a certificate someone can call him/herself a hunter. The only way we (Germany) can decimate mice and rats would be traps or poison. That´s still legal. Rats too clever for traps and don´t want to put poison when I feed birds. The poison here is made of wheat-seeds, too... :grumpy:
In the 70s it was legal to buy a .22LR or something similar to hunt rats, mice etc.... But nowadays we have pretty strict hunting laws in Germany. Shooting with an air rifle on animals can cause big trouble here.... like illegal hunting and using a gun in public... Strange, I know!