My personal thoughts are that you won't be seriously upsetting any natural
balance by putting up a bird feeder, especially considering how much humans
have already altered the planet! While it is a good idea to keep a feeder
well stocked once you've started (through any harsh winter months, anyway)
you don't have to worry about creating seed junkies (or juncos). Many
studies - and personal observations - have shown that birds do not become
dependent on the local feeders; they continue to forage on natural sources
of food and only visit feeders for a relatively small percentage of time.
There would be exceptions during bad weather. Regarding cats - although the
neighbours cats aren't hunting yet, they soon will if they notice a
congragation of tasty songbirds! Keep the feeders up high, or erect a
chicken-wire fence (or something similar) as I have done to prevent cats
from sitting directly under the feeder and leaping up. And to bring this
slightly back on to topic, the gathering of birds in the surrounding trees
does provide good recording opportunities!
Mark Phinney
on 1/25/06 12:16 AM, Aaron Ximm at wrote:
> Hopefully not opening a can of seed, er, worms here,
>
> ...but is there an ethical dimension to putting a bird feeder in your
> backyard?
>
> 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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