a tardy reply to 'guest'....neither the birds nor the squirrels usually 'go hungry', but in the natural order of things, they usually have to do a bit of work for their dinner. *grin*..I feed the birds 'primarily' so they'll be cute in front of MY window, but in altering the pattern of making the bird food 'easy', I also make it easy pickins for the squirrels, who not only steal the bird food, but chew up the plastic feeder.

If I have to point out the analogies with Napster, I am wasting my time anyway. I don't have to explain to the birds that they have no 'right' to demand free, easy food...if I stop, they will eat elsewhere with a little more effort...but I can't explain to the SQUIRRELS that if they (the squirrels) get to be too much of a nuisance, ALL feeding will stop 'cause I just can't afford it.

Similar analogies by request about pushy, selfish drivers in merging traffic and those who take 23 items into the 7 items express line at the grocery store.

(BTW...I HAVE managed to 'block' most of the squirrels with a clever device above my feeder, but the hungry, determined, greedy ones still manage at times...)