Lynn’s Bird Lady faces judge today

LYNN – Self-professed “Bird Lady” Claire Butcher vowed last October “to come to court with my boxing gloves on” – a prophecy that could come true today as she answers to charges she violated city ordinances by feeding birds at Flax Pond.Someone who observed her spreading bread, Corn Flakes and popcorn by the pond and behind True Value Hardware near her 19 Wyoma St. home on July 31 reported Butcher to city inspectors. They summonsed her to a court clerk magistrate’s hearing, but Butcher, in a handwritten Aug. 31 letter to the court, demanded an appearance before a judge.”I want this case to go into the courtroom, before a judge, with my lawyer at my side,” she wrote.City officials issued Butcher a no trespass order on Sept. 11 prohibiting her from feeding birds in public parks. They said the feedings prompted complaints from pond side neighbors angry over bird droppings on their lawns and driveways.Inspectors followed up the trespass warning with criminal complaints Butcher will have to answer today.The 77-year-old Butcher’s insistence on publicly feeding birds violates the city’s “bulk feeding of animals” ordinance but Butcher in her August letter said, “My constitutional rights have been violated.”The city fined Butcher $300 last September for feeding wildlife after neighbors complained about excessive bird droppings in their yards and roof gutters.City officials said the feeding poses a health hazard but they reached an agreement in District Court last October to forgive Butcher’s fine if she restricted bird feeding to her property and did not feed birds in parks or near ponds.Butcher paid a $200 municipal fine violation in 2005 but the city dismissed a $50 ticket issued to her in 2007 for violating municipal bulk feeding restrictions.