We had a story in our news yesterday about watching birds. I like watching birds. This is a kind of backyard bird count that runs for most of the winter. You put up a feeder and report who shows up.
My first thought was whether or not we were allowed to put feeders up yet. Over the past few years, an outbreak of trichomonsis has been spreading through some bird populations and people have been asked to take feeders down to slow the spread of this parasite. The theory was we should wait until after two hard frosts before putting feeders back up.
I hadn’t really been keeping track of the frost. Or maybe, more correctly, I’ve been trying to ignore it. We’ve had some frostiness, but were there really two hard frosts?
This morning, for the second day in a row, as I was sitting in my car waiting for the windows to defrost, I decided the answer would likely be yes. So we should be good for feeders.
Except there are other reasons not to put up feeders. There have been times that I have had doubts about bird feeders. Other animals seem to not get the concept that these are bird feeders. Raccoons certainly don’t get it. Sure, they may have feeders that they say are raccoon proof, but that just seems like issuing a direct challenge to the raccoons, and they are not shy of taking up a challenge. Then there are squirrels. There are always squirrels. But where I really drew the line was rats. When I started to notice some of the squirrels had really skinny tails, I knew it was time to shut off the food supply.
The birds don’t really seem to mind. There are still plenty of birds around, they’re just not hanging out at a feeder, but they’re still there. You just have to look a bit harder. I’d love to have a bird feeder… if all I was feeding was birds.
I’m not saying to avoid bird feeders. Just don’t be surprised if you’re feeding more than birds. And if you would like to take part in the feeder count program, head over to the news blog and check out the story. There’s a link to more info there.
