Feeding birds OK if it can be contained

Regarding the Jan. 5 letter, “Feeding birds shouldn't be crime,” by Marti Miller:

It can be a nuisance when overfeeding. We have lived here for 45 years and feed the wildlife all the time. We used to have a lot of birds. They included finches, cardinals, chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches, blue jays and more, including sparrows. We were able to enjoy all of them. Now we mostly have sparrows, upward to as many as 100 at a time. They crowd out other birds to where there are few of the other birds here.

The sparrows waste about half the seed by throwing it out of the feeders. There are sparrow droppings all over the place. I can clean the bird bath in the morning and by afternoon it is full of more droppings. We have a yard swing in the backyard that we can't use because of the droppings. It is very

unsanitary.

The lady (Miller references) not only has bird feeders in the front and backyard, but covers her driveway with seed about twice a day. She has several large bags of seed delivered at least once a month.

We feel strongly for feeding the birds and other wildlife, but it should be done so that you are not attracting so many birds that you are causing large overflow onto neighbors' properties.

Glenn and Ann Pike

Cedar Rapids