Bird feeders

       There are many important issues in the world today, as you well know, and bird feeding is one of them. We have the privilege of attracting a great variety of avian visitors to our winter window off the breakfast room and we spend many enjoyable hours in appreciation of their presence and activity. I wouldn't say we have a lot of diversity at that time of year since so many of the perching sort are actually perching in coffee and banana plantations elsewhere. At least that is what I like to believe. I have mentioned before the importance of shopping for organic tropical products in order to afford these migrants some protection from harmful pesticides and noxious farming practices so that we may continue to enjoy them in our North American yards and meadows and forests. It is pointless to belabor that but worth a reminder. Anyhoo, there is little serious contention about the importance of winter feeding which has a positive effect on survival rates. It is summer feeding that becomes a twitchy subject. Many of the same enthusiasts for winter supplements back off and stop food for summer or earlier. The argument goes something like this: the nesting and rearing period requires more protein and insect diet for the young and the feeders distract the parents from their provisional duties. Also, the feed is out of season and unnatural to the summer diet, thus causing health problems. The unnatural congregation of feeding birds can spread seasonal diseases and harmful plant infestations such as the wooly adelgid which preys on hemlock trees. The offending carriers in the latter case are chickadees who spread the wooly creatures wherever they land!

       Goodness sakes, if the web of life were only that simple! Here's my two cents: let's not forget that all birds are under constant threat from human activity. We can start with deforestation and loss of habitat everywhere. Then we can move on to the enormously destructive power of windows, aerial masts and tall buildings. It is a wonder that any individuals survive these hazards of migration that otherwise seem so benignly nonthreatening. Walk around the foundation of your own dwelling in late spring if you don't believe me and count the carcasses. The single most effective thing for each of us to do is to affix a window decal. Not all of them are obnoxious silhouettes. Then we can move on to domestic animals like cats, which are fed at home and are hugely predatory on birds. Cat owners who have bird feeders are the definition of environmental irony! It's utter carnage out there. You are delusional if you don't believe itty-bitty pussy is capable of killing ground-feeding songbirds. It's their nature.

      To me, our bird population needs all the help it can get all the time and supplemental feeding is a small way of giving them a better chance. The harm, it seems to me, is not nearly so weighty as the benefit. Of course if you plant for birds, as I try to do, that is a bonus. You can go to the store and buy blueberries any old time so plant a few bushes just for the birds. They will relish them greatly as they do lots of berries from shrubs that fruit late in the summer. And don't forget that there are perennials too that produce seed heads which many finches find enjoyable: heliopsis, echinacea and thistle, for instance. The point is to plan your garden and home with its appointments of comfort for you as well as for those other creatures with which you share the neighborhood. It's all about hospitality!

 Always, Celeste