Circle of life

So our compost mixer has attracted flies (mostly our fault, since we didn't have a good ratio of greens to browns, about to be rectified now that we have borrowed my parents' paper shredder and all my old bank statements are about to be composted). With flies come maggots. Neither are really all that bad, I mean the bin is outside so the flies aren't a real problem and the maggots do help the food stuff decompose faster. The bigger problem is that there are so many maggots they fall out of the bin by the dozens every time we turn it. Gross, I know. So I set a sheet of cardboard with a large aluminum tray underneath the bin and now the maggots fall into that. But the best part is every hour or so the tray starts rustling and it turns out the birds have figured out that the tray contains free food. So the birds are eating the worms that are eating out garbage that is being tuned into compost. The circle of life indeed.