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On 7/17/2017 7:08 AM, Paul Mansz wrote:
> young birds are initially fed a diet of insects and spiders, so they are foraging successfully without our help.
* I must say that this business of having feeders up over the summer is
new to me. I would caution those who are considering summer feeding with
a tale (that I was told as a graduate student) about Horned Lakes in
intensively wheat-farmed areas of Kansas: the Larks fed their nestlings
on readily available grain rather than Insects, and the young didn't
have the digestible protein and other nutrients they needed to grow up.
If seed is unnaturally available in the summer, seed-eating birds may
well feed their young the grain, and thereby stunt or prevent their
development. With or without disease, I think it's imprudent to feed
Birds during the summer.
fred. (of course, unless you've got a toddler who will benefit from
seeing Birds up close, I also don't think it's proper to feed Birds
during the winter, because of the imbalance this creates between
migratory/non migratory lifestyles, so feeder advocates can take my
advice with as much salt as they feel appropriate).
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> Similarly, taking down your feeders simply means the birds will forage over a larger territory. In fact, I think the birds do that anyway, regardless of whether feeders are present. In our yard, for example, the number of birds feeding at our feeders is at its low for the summer -- as is always the case it seems every year. The hummers seem to take a break and are much less frequent at the feeders, and other birds (except for Juncos and Cardinals) are very infrequent.
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Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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