Conversion of farms to forest, vastly increased raptor populations, no one hunting or trapping the biggest egg and chick predators, ‘possums and coons. The common species of songbirds flourished when everything was cleared and there were lots of hedgerows and not very many coopers and sharpies waiting for them to visit the feeders. Not sure that feeding birds is an occupation that gets Millennials off their cell phones either, esp when the price of seed skyrocketed as farmers switched to ethanol crops and the economy took a dive leaving people to cut wild birdseed out of their budget.
The numbers of coons and to a lesser degree possums is getting ridiculous. The coons have wiped out our local turkeys by feasting on eggs.
You are right about the opossums and raccoons. The raccoons in particular are smart, and the big ones are strong too. I had to really “re-fortify” our chicken house and run, plus go to war with the buggers: I got a few of those “dog-proof” raccoon traps. They also turned out to work well on opossums.
Still, we have lots of good “cover” around, and there are plenty of birds singing here in the mornings to wake us up!
Some sort of bird has also been dining on our tomatoes...