Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 07:30:27 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: June Tveekrem Subject: Re: Keeping Cats Indoors MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I would like to add that by the laws of probability, the more common a bird species is in your yard, the more likely a cat is to catch one of that species. Thus in the past 8 years the birds I've seen caught by cats in my neighborhood have been House Finches, House Sparrows, Cardinals, Juncos, and Mourning Doves, none of which are in any danger of extinction. Now if the cats could be persuaded to start in on the Cowbirds and Starlings.... ----------------------------------- June Tveekrem Columbia, Howard County, MD tweekiebird@toadmail.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Boyle" To: Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 2:57 AM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Keeping Cats Indoors > Keeping cats indoors? Oh please!! I do believe that a little effort in > placement of feeders can go a long way towards minimizing the impact of > outdoor housecats on backyard birds - the argument has also been made > (somewhat equally ridiculous) that sharpies and other predators feeding > on backyard birds is something not to be desired. Personally, I love to > observe the age-old dance between predator and prey, and if that means a > few feeder birds become lunchie for a sharpie, Cooper's Hawk, or even a > housecat, then so be it. Do we really think that passerines are going > to become an endangered species because of housecats? I can think of > many other immediate concerns i.e. habitat destruction, disease, etc. > that have a far greater toll on birds than my cats. They will continue > to roam their neighborhood territories, sitting under the feeders in > hope of a tasty morsel. > > ******************* > Frank Boyle > Laurel, MD > ******************* ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================