Jan Thomas wrote in a message to  Joseph W. Mack:
 JT> It does look like we're going to get a cold one; the weather
 JT> man on tv said we've already had 8 freezes this year.  Our
 JT> first freeze last year was on Thanksgiving.  The birds
 JT> outside have already eaten almost all the dogwood berries on
 JT> my trees.  I'm not sure what we should do about feeding them
 JT> when their food runs out.  Maybe throw food on the ground in
 JT> different places where we aren't going to be walking around.
 JT>  ???? 
Hmmm, that might work for the more suburban areas.  I'm located "in town" and 
most of the property is taken up with buildings and parking lot.  Although, 
come to think of it, there is a rather nice 2 block long park right across 
the street from me and I could toss some food down there (hopefully without 
antagonizing the parks and recreation dept. folks).
-> cold, hard winter is just what is needed for the sparrows' sake;
-> those exposed/infected that are unable to see well enough to forage
 JT> They are sparrow-sized birds, house finches.  You are right,
 JT> it is sad. I think nature does not deal kindly with
 JT> ungenetically diverse populations.  The native western house
 JT> finches aren't having a disease outbreak.
Well, as sad as it indeed is, it may be the only viable way nature has to 
keep it from becoming epidemic in other native bird populations.  If you see 
any more articles on that, I'd appreciate your keeping me posted.
On other news: (and a bit more on topic track )
   I've discovered that Randy has been learning to talk a bit.  I know what 
info I've seen on red-throat conures said they aren't well known for their 
talking ability, and that it isn't very clear... but, it turns out that 
"unclear" meant that I didn't catch on to the fact that he was saying 
something to me for several months.  Then when I did notice, I had to listen 
really closely for a couple of days to make sure I wasn't deceiving myself.  
He has been repeating the two names that I most frequently call him, i.e., 
"Big mouth" and "Crazy bird".  The yx macaw which is supposed to be able to 
talk better has so far only half-managed to come out with "what".  Go 
figure....  ;-)
Peace 
 Fr. Joe and the Flock 
 
--- timEd/2 1.01
---------------