Scott Hurlbert grew up in Mayville and has lived in the area all his life. He has always had a love of the outdoors. His love of the outdoors is what led to the formation of the Marsh Country Feeders and the design for a new bird feeder.

The durable, polycarbonate tube with a cloth mesh bag attracts gold finches, purple finch, house finch, redpole, pine siskin and indigo buntings. The feeder is designed strictly for thistle (nyjer) seed. Scott now lives on the edge of the Horicon Marsh and his front and backyards are filled with bird feeders. It was late last summer when he was filling and cleaning his bird feeders, some of which were tubes and some were bags, when he got the idea for his feeder. "I looked at them and thought, there's got to be a better way of doing this. I need to incorporate the bag and the tube, somehow, someway." "I've had ideas before but I never pursued them," Scott said. "Then I'd see it on the market!" This time Scott decided to follow through and saw a patent attorney who also thought it was a good product. The patent is now pending.

The covers for the feeders are made at Lake Country Corporation in Mayville where Scott works. He gets the tubing through them and the bags through another supplier. His father-in-law helps with cutting the tubing and his dad helps with cutting the aluminum rods. He laughed and said, "They're my sub contractors." At the present time the feeders come assembled. If Scott gets really busy in the future and doesn't have time to assemble them, there are assembly directions with the feeders.

Scott is in the process of developing a website so people could order over the Internet. "I believe in my product," Scott said. "It's an excellent product and I've had only positive feedback. The local people who have used it have been extremely pleased. They say they have lots of birds now where they never had them before. One of his bird feeders hangs at the Wisconsin DNR Service Center between Horicon and Mayville on Highway 28. They are also sold at the gift shop there. When asked how they work, the volunteers have only to point to the one hanging up to prove their point. When he gave one to a friend the first thing the friend's wife said was, "it better be easy to clean." And that's the big selling factor because it really is easy to clean. This tube feeder will not accumulate old and rotting seed in the bottom and it can be completely emptied by feeding birds. Minimal cleaning and the fact that the feeder is extremely attractive to birds make it a very user-friendly feeder.

The feeders are available in three different sizes, six, eight and 12-inch tubes. The six-inch model has no feeding stations on the tube. The eight-inch model has one and the 12-inch model has two additional perches. Scott offers an interesting tip if you are new to feeding birds. He recommends placing the feeder in a location where it can be easily spotted by passing birds. Once the birds have become accustomed to the feeder and the yard, it can be moved to a different location where you can see it from your home. Keep the feeder close to trees or shrubs, which offer safety to birds.