When I bird in Sax-Zim, I follow pretty much the same route every time, and don't really know where many of the houses with feeders are. But I do peek in on four feeders when I'm birding there. Maybe those of us who bird there should compile a list of the houses with feeders, and start a fund to give all the people with feeders a big bag of seed and a nice bird book as a thank-you for "using" their property for our own enjoyment, and a letter asking if in the future they'd mind people birding there. I think we could possibly develop some sort of magnet people could put on their mailboxes, with binoculars for those who don't mind birders looking in, and binoculars with a red circle/slash for those who DO mind.
Does that sound like a reasonable approach? Any other suggestions? Laura Erickson Duluth, MN Producer, "For the Birds" radio program <http://www.lauraerickson.com/> There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of birds. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter. --Rachel Carson
