Thank you for the great advice. I've managed to attract 100+ birds a day (finches, sparrows and some jays) (and they are fattening up) with my bird buffet (7 feeders, 2 water features) and the flies around one feeder have been very annoying. We have a phoebe flycatcher that has taken up residence who is apparently not interested in the type of fly the feeder has attracted - he's busy elsewhere. We have been finding about one dead bird a week, called the health department, but was told with the numbers of birds we have it's not unusual??? I'm using hulled feed (sunflower chips and seed without millet) to cut down the waste and we do try to keep the bases of the birdfeeders tidy but newspaper may be the answer. Wish there was a more attractive, less labor alternative. Anyway - thank you so much for the advice - we'll get right on it! more »