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[OT] Ethics of bird feeders?

Subject: [OT] Ethics of bird feeders?
From: Aaron Ximm <>
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 23:16:31 -0800
Hopefully not opening a can of seed, er, worms here,

...but is there an ethical dimension to putting a bird feeder in your backy=
ard?

We hung up a seed "bell" I bought on a whim last week in one of the
trees out back and I'll be darned how fast the thing is vanishing; and
I've suddenly seem a lot small chirpers I've not really noticed before
(e.g. chestnut-backed chickadees). It's been a source of mild
happiness.

I was thinking therefore of hanging a feeder and keeping it stocked,
but is this considered a no-no in the
artifically-inflating-the-food-supply-and-hence-population sense? I
was considering that I'd have to be committed to keeping it stocked on
a decent basis, and would try to slowly ramp down supply if I knew we
were going on a trip...

..but I did get to wondering. Makes me wonder about the hummingbird
feeder too, for which I recently had to rig an intermediate suspension
that passes through a cup of water (punched a whole in the bottom) to
keep the ants from climbing down to it.

Fwiw no cats in residence (though neighbors' are welcome and pass
through regardless) and haven't ever seen one hunting.

 best,
  aaron

--
  
  www.quietamerican.org

  83% happy
   9% disgusted
   6% fearful
   2% angry


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