SoTier

I seldom have an issue with squirrels because there's not a large squirrel population in my neighborhood, plus I have a dog whose purpose in life is to protect his turf from intruders, especially squirrels and pigeons, but for most people, there are some types squirrel resistant feeders. For small birds, there are cylinders in wire-cages that will only allow small birds (sparrow size) to get to the feed. For other birds, there are both tube and platform feeders that are designed to close when heavier critters like squirrels try to get to the feed. Squirrels are notorious for defeating most supposedly squirrel-proof deterrents, however. Sometimes people will try to lure squirrels away from their feeders by feeding them corn, either shelled or on the cob. I think that preventing rats from scavenging among discarded seed is an easier problem to deal with than raiding squirrels. The most important thing to do is to feed quality bird seed without fillers. "Quality bird seed" is seed that birds will eat even if it falls on the ground since some birds like doves, juncos, and cardinals like to feed on the ground or close to it. The most common edible seeds are sunflower seeds, white millet, peanuts, and niger (thislte) seed. Cheap seed mixes have filler seeds like milo (grain sorghum) which most North American birds don't like so the ground feeders won't clean them up. You can also buy hulled sunflower seeds and millet so there's no debris on the ground. I feed black oil sunflower seed, hulled millet, and peanuts in shells all in separate feeders plus a mix of hulled sunflower seeds, millet, peanuts and chopped fruit in both a hanging feeder and a platform feeder on the ground all year. I also hang suet cakes in winter. If you are a gardener, planting flowering plants that provide birds with food will also attract birds. I don't hang hummingbird feeders because the hummer come to my garden to feed on the hostas, trumpet vine, and bee balm blooms. I scatter some left over sunflower seed on the south side of my garage to create a sunflower patch that attracts goldfinches in clouds. Chickadees feast on the echinacea (coneflower) seed heads all fall. When I had a choke cherry near my pond, I would gets dozens of birds feasting on the ripe fruit, frequently birds that only visited my urban yard for the fruit like gray catbirds. Unfortunately, I lost the tree in a storm a few years ago, and the sapling choke cherries at the end of the yard aren't bearing yet.

And that's not going to change with Woody Johnson as their owner. When an NFL team is a perpetual bottom feeder, the problem is with the very top leadership IMO, and Johnson's proven that for more than two decades. Johnson's handling of the Rodgers situation is a prime example of the owner's stupidity. Look at the Bills and Lions. These two franchises were synonymous for bottom feeders for most of the first quarter of the 21st century. It wasn't until the Pegulas purchased the Bills that the team started to turn things around. Sheila Ford Hamp, Martha Firestone Ford's daughter, took control of the Lions in June, 2020, and suddenly the Lions blossomed as a league powerhouse. It's not that the Bills and Lions didn't have some great talent -- on the field and on the sidelines -- over the years that they were bottom feeders but they never ever seemed to get their team acts' together well enough to win consistently. On the other side of the coin, you have owners like the Rooneys and the Hunts whose Steelers and Chiefs seldom fail to be decent, even when their talent is significantly compromised.

That's a barn owl, Muppy. They are common in California. American barn owl

In 1978, the bald eagle was listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act in the continental US outside of Alaska because of the effects of pesticides that had contaminated most of the lakes and rivers. In 2007, the bald eagle was removed from that list, and since then, its numbers have continued to grow thanks primarily to the decades of efforts to improve the environment. Seeing eagles in and around Jamestown hasn't become as common as seeing robins or cardinals or bluejays, but it's not that rare an event any more, either. At least one pair of bald eagles have been nesting in the Celoron area where Chautauqua Lake empties into the Chadokoin River for several years. You can frequently see one of the pair flying over the lake from the Lakewood boat launch. Tuesday I was out in a friend's backyard near Jamestown Community College, and heard a faint hunting cry of what was likely a hawk. I looked up and saw a dark bird circling around very high in the sky. As it turned, I saw its white head, and knew it was a bald eagle. It's apparent mate then flew into view at a somewhat lower altitude with both its white head and tail clearly visible. Eagles! We watched them until they disappeared to the west. This wasn't any exotic locale or even some rural area. It was a small backyard in a fairly densely populated urban area.

When I hunted up my old Backyard Birding thread that I started in 2020 to add a new post, I got a message that I should probably start a new thread, so here is Backyard Birding II. I thought that my original post remains a good starting point for the thread, so I included it here. A great hobby to start during this pandemic is "backyard birding" which is learning to identify the birds in and around your house and/or neighborhood. It's a great way to get yourself, your kids, your parents and/or grandparents interested in nature and science. It's inexpensive. It's not complicated. You don't even need a yard ... a neighborhood park or a cemetery or even a grassy median (like on Bidwell Parkway in Buffalo) will work. A window overlooking your neighbor's yard might even work. To get started, you need a guide to birds. I like the Audubon Society's Field Guide to North American Birds which I have been using since the 1980s. It's pocket size, comes with a plastic like cover, and has photos, maps, and info about each bird in it. Field Guide to Birds. It's less than $16. If you have a yard, you can buy a bird bath and set it up in a sunny spot that you can see from one or more windows or from a deck or porch. Even a cheap plastic one will work fine. In addition to seeing more birds, you may actually save some by providing water in dry spells. Remember to clean your bird bath regularly as when the birds use it, it will get messy. You can bring more birds into your yard -- and see more birds -- using bird feeders of various types -- and cost. Especially in the spring, migrating birds are towards the end of their travels and need ready sources of food. I feed primarily black oil sunflower seed plus suet cakes but I also feed a fruit/nut mix and peanuts. Don't buy those bird feed mixes sold in grocery stores as they have cheap filler seeds that birds won't eat and scatter all over the ground. Tractor Supply has a nice selection of feeders and bird seed. If you want some guidance, try the Wild Birds Unlimited on McKinley near the mall in Blasdell. There's also a WBU in Amherst ... on Transit I think. I have my tubular sunflower feeders out year around but that's not possible if you live in bear country. Raccoons can also be problems, especially in the summers when young ones go exploring. Many people have luck attracting hummingbirds with feeders or by hanging gaudy fuchsia pots on their porches. I haven't, probably because as a gardener, my hummers go for the hostas, bee balm, and trumpet vines planted in the yard. I also plant sunflowers -- generally by cleaning up the seeds/hulls from around the feeder poles and depositing that in a sunny spot along my side fence -- which attracts clouds of goldfinches when the sunflowers ripen. The great thing about backyard birding is that it's something you can do for the entire rest of your life, even when you are very old and not very mobile. My late step-mother, who suffered from emphysema, loved sitting on her back porch watching the hummers coming to her fuchsia plants or sitting at her kitchen table watching the chickadees and cardinals coming to her seed feeders.

Sore losers always cry foul. A Bills-Lions Super Bowl would be one of the best storylines in this century and would draw plenty of viewers, probably more than KC-San Fran. If the NFL fixed the results why have teams like Dallas, Miami and the NY Jets been absent from the Super Bowl in the last three decades?

Diggs caught 7 passes on 9 targets for 52 yards against the Steelers, with at least 2 of those passes crucial for the Bills keeping drives going. Kincaid was targeted the second most: 3 passes from 6 targets for 59 yards and 1 TD.

Tua isn't elite because he simply doesn't have the intangibles like leadership, ability to improvise, will to win, etc that separate QBs like Allen or Mahomes from other top QBs. That doesn't mean he's trash, but he's just not up there with the very best. He's a very good QB who excels when he's in the right offensive system, and obviously McDaniel's system is perfect for making Tua look like a star during the regular season. Unfortunately, McDaniel's system also almost guarantees that the Fins are going fail in the playoffs. McDaniel's system is to build an offensive juggernaut that depends on getting up on opponents early and often to mask the limitations of the talent limitations of the rest of the team. To that end, most of Miami's talent has been put into the offensive skill players. When the Fins can't get a big, early lead on opponents, they struggle which makes McDaniel's system a recipe for failure in the playoffs, especially in the AFC which is loaded with teams with smart physical defenses along with good offenses that frequently feature elite/excellent QBs and strong running games. IMO, the Fins need to change their philosophy -- and likely the people who who instituted it -- before they jettison Tua.

OP, I got your sarcasm -- and the point you were trying to make -- in your initial post of this thread. You should have quit then and acknowledged what you were trying to do. Sarcasm and/or irony frequently doesn't work well in a written format since both depend upon verbal and/or visual cues in the delivery plus many people are simply very literal in their interpretation of the written word. Your choice to continue your sarcasm throughout this thread makes you seem ignorant and classless, which from numerous other posts of yours I've read, I know isn't so.

The Chargers find new ways to lose -- and invent new ones when they need them. I think it's part of their DNA. They've spent most of the 21st century disappointing their fans. They wasted Phillip Rivers' prime years as a pro QB with their incompetence. They appear ready to waste Justin Herbert's best years as well.

Holy crap! Pick six!!!! Go Pack!

Maybe. The Phins are going to face a some serious cap problems next season which is going to limit just how much they can actually improve the team. There is also the very real prospect that the Jests will be much more competitive next seasons with a functional offense under Rodgers.

I don't think defensive injuries were an excuse. The Fins' defense didn't lose that game for them. They forced the Chiefs to kick 4 FGs! The Fins' offense scored only 1 TD. After Hill caught his TD pass, he never made another big play thanks to the Chiefs' DB -- McDuffie, I think. I think Waddle had one chunk pass play, and Wilson had another one. The Fins' run game was ineffective. The Fins didn't convert a third down until late into the third quarter, or maybe even into the fourth quarter. The Fins offense has disappeared in the second half against the Cowboys, the Ravens, the Bills twice, and the Chiefs yesterday.

I think it's less cyclical than a reflection of societal changes. In the 1970s, malls replaced the big downtown department stores that had dominated the retail landscape since the 1880s as well as the shopping plazas that flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. Now, malls are dying off and being replaced by "life style centers" (housing/retail/dining), large shopping centers (much like old style plazas), and on-line shopping.

I agree. IMO, Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who killed 168 people, got off too easy. He was executed in June, 2001, just six years after the bombing. The victims' families and the survivors have lived with the horrors of McVeigh's act for almost 30 years.

I enjoyed the game. Watching the Fish get their collective butts kicked was certainly worth $5.99.

It's not the open air stadiums or bad weather that bother the Fish. It's teams with smart, tough, physical defenses that derail their offense. If they can't pass successfully, their running game becomes pretty ordinary. The Fish depend upon getting a lead early with their passing and building on it before their opponents figure things out. When they can't do that, they struggle. All of their losses this season came at the hands of teams that have tough physical defenses with smart DCs, including Tennessee which had a losing record. If the game had been in Miami, the result would have been the same.

Yawn. The refs missed a call. The league officials also missed it. Manure happens. Unless/until the NFL adopts the some kind of line monitoring system like pro tennis has, there are always going to be missed out of bounds calls.

Life is hard all over, but she's doing herself no favors with her shallow complaints. She's whining about annoyances not problems. Her husband's success has largely insulated her from the worse problems the spouses of pro athletes face, so suggesting she would face the same issues as the wife of a marginal NFL player is just bad taste. She may have some very real problems, but if she has them, she's not describing them in this article, which is fine because they may very well be personal ones that aren't anybody else's business. She just set herself up for criticism. Maybe it's the whole point of social media ... just to out there so people "talk" about you. It's like the old show business adage, "there's no such thing as bad publicity" updated for the 21st century.

That's a real possibility. Those two teams play physical on both sides of the ball, and they don't like each (division rivals), so they're both going to go all out to win this game. The winner may very well come out of this game physically hurting and mentally exhausted.

The Bills can't play Miami again unless Miami not only beats KC but also Baltimore, two teams that have already beaten them. If they get past the Chiefs, the Fish are not beating the Ravens because Miami not only has trouble beating good teams, they can't win against physical defenses, and the Ravens are notoriously physical. All their losses this year have been to teams with strong, physical defenses: the Bills twice, the Chiefs, the Eagles, the Titans, and the Ravens. The Browns have a chance to beat the Ravens, which would give the Bills home field advantage if the Bills take care of their business. The Fish don't.

Fixed that for you. 😁 I think that until the late third quarter -- or maybe even early in the fourth quarter -- the Fins only managed 1 first down in the second half. Especially when your team has been the division leader since September and was 3 games ahead of the Bills with 5 games left in the regular season. Totally agree. Winning in the playoffs usually depends upon a stout defense and a decent running game when all the opponents are good and playing conditions are frequently poor.

The Browns do NOT suck. They have an awesome defense and a great running game despite losing their best RB (Chubb) early in the season. They won games with a couple of other backup QBs before they signed Flacco, who has found the fountain of youth at age 39. Joe Flacco needs to play two more great/good games for them -- against Houston and against Baltimore -- to set up a Bills/Browns AFCCC game in HIghmark. I'm ready for that.

The Fish getting squished is always a good thing. Go, Chiefs!

Great defenses and great OLs travel better than great passing games, and that's especially true in the playoffs. It's no accident that the Browns continued to thrive despite losing their starting QB and their world-class RB because their defense and their offensive line are among the best in the NFL.