My view is this is a moral aesthetic. If you postulate you are
artificailly increasing the food supply, then you have to stop. If you
see it as an extension of your personal mission to assist the birds you
must continue. Elect the aesthetic you prefer. If it is any help, my
guess is the birds vote for the feeding.
Aaron Ximm 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
>
>
> "Microphones are not ears,
> Loudspeakers are not birds,
> A listening room is not nature."
> Klas Strandberg
>
>
>
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