Don't Forget the Birds

I don't have a bird feeder. I did years ago, but I attracted just as many mice as birds, so I gave up feeding the birds. But, the recent snow and the on-going cold made me think about the birds. Can they find enough food to eat? If I feed them today, do I need to feed them all winter long? Since I didn't know the answer to either question, I asked Jim Monsma, the League's resident bird expert.

Here's what he said.

It is fine to feed animals now and then. They eat what they can find, when they can find it. You could leave them in a bad situation if you fed them regularly and then cut them off suddenly.

More important is what you feed them – no bread, for instance – and keeping feeders clean, which many people fail to do. That’s why we have the outbreak of the eye disease among house finches, for instance. This was news to me, when I was growing up we always put out bread crusts for the birds.

Other important considerations --
Keep bird feeders no more than 3 feet from nearby windows (collisions with glass kill more birds than any other single factor with estimates that, on average, every single structure in the country kills 3 birds/year – think about that for a minute).

Keep cats indoors. I can do that!

Good Deeds -- Big and Small

Inside yesterday's Washington Post was an article detailing a heroic whale rescue. The young calf -- one of less than 400 remaining North Atlantic right whales -- became entangled in fishing lines off the coast of northern Florida during its annual migration along the Eastern seaboard. Folks from six Florida and Georgia institutions worked for three days to free the whale; Rescuers in three boats cut about 350 feet of fishing line that was trailing the whale. According to the article, they did not pull the fishing lines out of the whale's mouth because doing so could harm the animal. The rescue team determined later, from the air, that the whale was free of the line. The rescue was a success!

Shortly after reading the Washington Post article, I was involved in an animal rescue of my own. I am watching my friend's cat for a couple of days and expected it would be a simple task -- feed the cat, change her water, scoop the litter pan and play with her. I did not expect that I would have to catch a wild bird inside my friend's house, but that is exactly what I did.

I was getting ready to lock up when I heard a strange noise coming from a bedroomthe. There, pounding the window -- from the inside -- was a teeny, tiny frantic bird. "What is a bird doing here!" I made sure that the cat was not in the bedroom and closed the door. It was just me and the bird. I tried opening the window, but wasn't sure how it opened and I couldn't get it to budge. I tried throwing a blanket on the bird, but it was so little and so fast, it escaped. I did that several times. Then I got a box and tried to scoop the bird in the box, but it was too fast for the old scoop-bird-in-box trick.

Frustrated, I left the room, made sure the door was closed tight so the cat couldn't get in, and called Second Chance Wildlife Center (www.scwc.org). They know everything there is to know about urban wildlife. The person I spoke to advised me to leave crumbled cat food soaked in water and try again to trap the bird with a sheet or piece of cloth or call animal control and ask for help.

I decided to get a partner -- teamwork is always best -- and came back with my son, Max. We said hello to the cat and went to the bedroom. The bird was back on the window, trying desperately to flap its way through the glass. After several attempts of tossing a blanket and failing to catch the bird, we waited patiently while it settled back on the window. Finally, we were able to corner the bird and get him into the box.

We took the closed box into the backyard, set it on the ground and opened the lid. At first the bird didn't do anything. He seemed to be thinking "what should I do now" -- he'd spent so much time trying to get outside and now there he was. I tilted the box and the bird hopped out and burrowed in the ivy. I thought maybe after all that pounding he was hurt and we'd have to find him in the ground cover, scoop him up and take him to the Second Chance Wildlife Center. And then, he flew away. The rescue was a success!

Wild Animals are Wild

An article in yesterday's Washington Post, On the Wings of Love, At Temple's Aviary, Problem Birds Find Feathered Friends, was another reminder that wild animals should be left in the wild. According to Mira Tweti, author of the book, Of Parrots and People, "they (birds) are never domesticated. They are wild animals". And, yet, people continue to buy birds -- wild animals, sometimes caught in their native lands, sometimes bred in captivity -- and expect them to be happy living in cages. The article told how the 35 resident birds living in a small building next to the Kunzang Palyul Choling Buddhist temple in Poolesville, Maryland cared for Jetrunma Ahkon Lhamo and others could not be kept by the people who purchased them. The birds -- African grey parrots, macaws, and cockatoos from Australia and the Pacific Islands -- developed destructive behaviors. Many were brought to the sanctuary because they developed self destructive behaviors -- pulling off their plumage, sometimes to the point of piercing their skin underneath. Others become aggressive biting people and other birds.

Kids can help the birds. Trading in Slingshots: HSI Teaches Youth to Protect Wild Birds in Nicaragua an article on the Humane Society of the United States' website, http://www.hsus.org/about_us/humane_society_international_hsi/international_trade_policy_and_capacity_building/trading_slingshots_for_backpacks.html tells how children load rocks into a slingshot and take aim at a wild bird's nest. After the rock hits the nest, the mother bird is usually killed or injured, and the nest falls from the tree with the baby birds inside. The young birds who survive the fall will have their wings clipped and become someone's pets, forced to live in cages or remain confined to a house for the rest of their lives. A Humane Society International education program is partnering with the Foundation Friends of the Nicaraguan Zoo (FAZOONIC) to show students the impact of their actions and expose them to wildlife conservation efforts. At the end of a program, that lasted several month, a ceremony was held where each student lined up to throw a slingshot in the garbage in exchange for a backpack labeled, "I protect animals in my community."

We should be lining up daily to protect the animals in our community. What are you doing?