eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog

Well, I guess the time had to come... Plastic hangouts for the back yard birds... But that might not be all that bad. I've been reading about the materials themselves (called "RPL" or "Recycled Plastic Lumber"), and it seems that this is a reasonable step forward for recycling. The materials appear to be amazingly stable and completely impervious to water. Still, I had to play with one; the photo below shows a Red-breasted Nuthatch on a plastic feeder the wife and I received as a Christmas present.



So far, the birds seem to be quite happy with the new feeder. Time will tell if the feathered ones will continue to flock to the trough, how easy it is to clean, if it really can live up to its guarantee never to split, chip, rot or warp, etc. But at this point, all systems look "Go!" (If the birds really do accept our new plastic feeder, ultimately, what I'd like to do is set up a few of them mounted on stainless-steel poles which are impaled in recycled plastic lumber four by fours per "Hanging/Mounting Your New Feeder, (Part 1)" and Hanging/Mounting Your New Feeder, (Part 2). That would make for a feeding system that would probably last for 50 years or more.) Aside from the longevity, appearance is important too. From a distance, the feeder looks perfectly natural. But up close (as in the picture above), there's no hiding the fact that it's synthetic RPL.

Right now, eBirdseed.com only carries one such feeder made of poly lumber, the "Rubicon Meal Worm Feeder"... So the question becomes, would you like to see us carry a wider variety made of this new material? Just use that "comment" button to let us know.

See you by those bionic feeders,

CapeCodAlan

P.S. A good source for info concerning RPL is the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

P.P.S. In my last post, I wrote of seeing a UFO... I hope you noted the skepticism when I stated: "That's all... Maybe 10 or 15 seconds... No little green men... No glowing ectoplasm... No alien proctologists probing parts unknown... Just a restless light object..." My guess is that it was simply ball lightning. (I know of two extremely reliable reports of such occurrences within a five-mile radius of what I saw.) Then again, because it happened right on the edge of the bog proper, it also could have been a phenomenon associated with biogas. Like I said... Boring.