The way I see it, the birds in my back yard are greedy little creatures. They have been getting progressively more demanding over the past few weeks. My wife says that I have turned them into welfare cases. All I know is that they are going through my birdseed faster every day.

I first put my feeder up about five weeks ago. I filled it completely with birdseed. It took the birds about three days to empty it. That seemed to be the normal state of affairs for the first two weeks. Then, suddenly, it was empty in about a day and a half. Now, it has progressed to the point where they empty it within three hours. Yesterday, there were about twenty doves eating on the ground while sparrows, blue jays, cardinals, and house finches battled for chances at the feeder. They must be telling other birds to come join them for free food.

When I finally got outside to fill the feeder today after the rain, I saw birds sitting on the fence, on the poor man's patio chairs, and tree branches looking at me with attitude. I couldn't help but think of that old Alfred Hitchcock movie, The Birds. They were obviously annoyed with me for not keeping the feeder full for them. It almost seemed like they had held a meeting to organize an attack, just in case I didn't fill it. The really freaky thing was how they just stayed where they were and watched me fill the feeder. I barely got to slide the patio door closed before they swooped to the feeder and started doing their best to set a new record for fastest emptying of a feeder.