My bird feeder holds 1 gallon of bird seed and is emptied daily. No, it isn't the birds that eat it all. They consume about 10%. No, it isn't the squirrels that eat it. The feeder is squirrel proof. They gave up years ago and focus only on the seeds that fall to the ground. No, it isn't the racoons that eat it. Ever since the neighbor stopped feeding them by hand after she got bitten and had to go through the series of rabies shots, they have pretty much vacated the area.

The reason it is empty are the wiley white-tail deer. One deer grabs a bird perch in its mouth and lifts the end up in the air. The seeds pour out of the 8 openings and the other deer, usually three to six of them catch the stream of seeds as they fall as if they were at a drinking fountain. The feeder just 8' away from the kitchen window. Ever wonder why a guy would bother driving 2 hours each way every weekend from October to December freezing his butt off sitting in a tree stand in hopes a deer will walk by when he would have such an easy shot from the warmth of his kitchen? The answer to that is that I don't think the neighbors would appreciate me following a blood trail through their yards as we live in the Chicago suburbs.