I can appreciate your worries over swooping birds of prey.  The trees in my
back yard are apparently listed in the Turkey Buzzard Frommer's Guide to
Migration on $2.00 a Day.  For two days every spring and fall, a little
before dusk, the trees become loaded with vultures (so many that once, they
broke a pretty stout limb with their combined weight!) Since the back yard
is the only place where the fuzzies can roam outside (home is the California
desert...), the boys become pretty cranky during migration season.  Not that
they show any real desire to play in the grass when they hear the buzzards
gruggling at them (only time I've ever seen a ferret show common sense!!!).
 
ciao,
David M.
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[Posted in FML issue 1692]