| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Green Man |
Feeding Wild BirdsAre we correct to feed wild birds with so much imported seeds and feeds? Are we building their population levels up to un-natural levels and are our feeding stations disease hot spots?http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11037830 |
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| Went |
Population levels of all species rise and fall all the time - perhaps it is more important to preserve biodiversity through ensuring adequate natural habitats. Feeding birds shouldn't be necessary. | ||||
| Bernie66 |
Difficult one, should we feed to counteract the harm we do with cats and taking over their habitat or should we let nature take its course? tricky? | ||||
| Went |
Cats often get the blame however pesticides, insecticides, collisions (windows, high buildings, vehicles, power lines) by catch of seabirds (fishing industry), adverse extreme weather, destruction of habitat are all contributory factors.
There is so much more that could be done to prevent injury and death but very little motivation to do so.....cleaning bird feeders might help but the impact would be so insignificant. |
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| Tavascarow |
Plus putting food out for birds is a great way to get people, & especially children interested in ornithology & the environment.
I started when I was five putting out kitchen scraps & watching the birds through my dads ex navy bins. I'm sure I would have come to it eventually but starting young has given me a real understanding & appreciation of just how beautiful our world is. The RSPB is one of the best supported charities in this country & I'd be happy to bet that a large proportion of their supporters are armchair birders. What is needed (as stated in the video) is to get people aware of keeping their feeders clean & not leaving spoiled food around. |
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| Green Man |
I'm not sure of buying seeds and nuts up around the world (taking into account the land and water used to grow them) and shipping them into the U.K. could be construed as a way of appreciating how beautiful our world is. Don't get me wrong, I've only just thought this, and have multiple feeders in my own garden with Nyger and Peanuts in them, now I'm questioning myself. Am I feeding the birds for them or am I feeding the birds for me? | ||||
| Green Man |
I think I'm beginning to think this way also. |
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| Went |
When we moved to Spain one of our ambitions was to create a biodiverse plot with habitats and food sources for a whole range of birds, animals, reptiles and insects. We created many different areas, each with its population of species. We could of course lawned the lot, ripped out native species and created a showcase garden but we opted for creating a habitat that both we and the birds and the rest could all value. It works here for us. Since installing things like ponds and rotting piles of wood, compost piles, fedges, hedges, allowing meadow land to grow, planting native trees and plant species...we have seen populations and the number of species visitors rise tremendously. My dad came and brought a bird feeder as he is a keen 'Birder'..the birds never used it once - preferring the grasses and seed heads, hidden corners and natural landscapes to find food. |
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| Tavascarow |
In the greater scheme of things I'm not sure worrying about the environmental impact of feeding groundnuts & nyger has compared to say wearing non organic cotton, eating meat & eggs fed on soya, & eating non organic cereals. Intensive chemical based agriculture has done much more damage to bird populations in the last 50 years than the importation of bird seed. All of those armchair RSPB members are helping preserve some very valuable & threatened habitats, & in a country where the governments have always put the environment at the bottom of the pile, that's important. |
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| Rob R |
I feed wild birds but I do think it is silly to cultivate, cut, thresh, clean, store, bag, transport and 'feed' birds. Growing feed for birds would have so much more value on all levels if they were allowed to harvest it for themselves. If it is on a field scale fertility building could go hand in hand with wild feed crops, something I don't see that much of in the existing set-aside, apart from the game conservancy fanatics. | ||||
| Green Man |
I believe the RSPB is quite wealthy, is so, why don't they buy up more fields through-out he country and grow pockets of pesticide free wild, native seeds to help preserve the bird population? | ||||
| Went |
I seem to recall they do where possible and where funds allow - I know they have taken over Old Moor Wetlands Centre in South Yorks - which was struggling before their intervention. http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/d/dearne-oldmoor/index.aspx |
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| Bodger |
Re: Feeding Wild Birds
IMO, by feeding the wild birds, we are actually compensating in some way for the destruction by man of their natural habitat. If we hadn't thrown a spanner in the works in the first place, then they wouldn't need their diets supplementing. |
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| Rob R |
Re: Feeding Wild Birds
I agree, but should we be supplementing them with bought in feed like peanuts? Not many peanuts in their natural environment... |
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| Bodger |
I bet you like a good curry Rob 
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| Rob R |
That certainly wasn't the answer I was expecting
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| darkbrowneggs |
Hi - I buy sunflower seed and all the birds love them. If any fall out they germinate easily round the feeder. They are not the great big ones, and really look just like border flowers.
This is a link to a farm in the UK which supplies direct http://www.streetendfeeds.co.uk/ So not many food miles!!! All the best Sue |
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| Green Man |
Remember when we import seeds and feeds, we are importing water. Probably water the selling country can not afford to sell. Distroying the habitat of wild birds abroad to feed our own birds? | ||||
| Bodger |
The fields in foriegn countries will surely already be in agricultural production, whether we buy foriegn bird seed or not. The same pointing finger of habitat loss could also be pointed, if the UK farmers were to go into wild bird seed production.
The logging of hard wood and the destruction of forests is one thing but I've heard or seen nothing to suggest that vast areas of habitat are being destroyed to facillitate the growing of bird seed in foriegn countries to supply the UK twitchers market. I maybe wrong on this and stand to be corrected. I like to think that the sums of money that I spend on wild bird seed, as well as helping our native birds, might also be helping rural communities in far off lands make ends meet. I also thought that peanut production was big business in Jimmy Carters part of the US of A. In the meantime, what about our own wild birds ? Do we just allow them to die out ? Another point.
Are you only guessing that the countries involved in growing wild bird seed are strapped for water or do you know for sure ? For all you and I know maybe the countries that are growing these seeds have tons of the stuff. |
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| Green Man |
I'm struggling to find how many tonnes of wild bird foods are imported into the UK.  Just wondering why we think we can destroy British habitats here and expect to import form some other foreign birds habitat? Peanuts come from all round the world depending on the season and price. It seems a bit selfish of me to buy peanuts that have been shipped past Pakistan, past China, and past Africa whilst the humans there are hungry? I'm not peaching, just thinking out loud.
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| Rob R |
Water shortages are a problem in so many countries [including the UK] that you can be pretty sure of it being the case, even before setting out on some basic research. Importing water is on of the ways that most developed nations delay the problem, with the possible exception of the USA due to its vastness and reliance upon exports. |
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| dpack |
the cake crows demand their due in the winter ,
mostly my bird feeding is by changing environments ,planting trees etc ,in winter if im outside i often turn some surface for the small carnivores who get very tame ,i put out fat in winter ,i will share a biccy if asked politely ,pasty gulls are a different kettle of pies not entirly altruistic as the little birds eat loads of pests |
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| Katieowl |
We had no birds in the garden before I started putting food out. Now I have a good patrol on the veg beds...  only thing is nobody is tackling the giant slugs (need ducks...)
Kate |