Blog for the Birds

Feed the Birds not the Bears

This time of year is a bad time of year for bears.  They’re hungry and those bird feeders are going to look mighty tasty.  Just ask Eunice Sanville of Alexandria, VA. She lost a home-made birdfeeder to a hungry bear. They’re just waking up and filling up. So if you live on the fringes of town where bears can show up, check with your local wildlife experts to see if it’s OK to hang your feeders. Otherwise you may have to take them down for a bit.

Trouble is ‘bruin’ for area bird feeders

Photo courtesy of FoxIsland.Net

Tired of Radio? Try Bird Radio

A UK broadcasting company has come up with a new idea for an alternate to that mindless chatter you often hear on commercial radio. It’s called the Birdsong Station and as the name implies, it plays nothing but birds signing.  It’s a 20 minute audio recording that plays in a loop.  Now that I would tune into!

Bird radio a real tweet

Penguin Like Bird Lands in Florida

More and more cold water birds are showing up in tropical climates.  Imagine this boy playing in the surf in Florida and seeing a penguin.  Ok it wasn’t a penguin, but a penguin look alike - the Razorbilled Auk. They’re usually found in the Artic and rarely seen south of New England.  This and other cold water bird sightings make one wonder if this is part of the global warming trend? Are our aviary friends getting confused too?

Bird makes surprising final stop in Vero

Stop Feeding the Birds Judge Orders

Usually birdfeeders are a good thing.  But you can overdo it! An Illinois couple has been ordered to take down their bird feeders after the neighbors complained of it attracting other animals.  Other guests included birds and raccoons, opossums because in addition to the hanging bird feeder, this couple was putting food on the ground for the ducks.  No no.  Moderation is key in all things!  Keep these number of feeders to a minimum and don’t place food on ground (unless you have a (watch) dog who can attend to the overcrowding that will occur.

Prospect Heights couple obeys judge by removing bird feeders

Wind Turbines and Birds Don’t Mix - or Can They?

Here’s an interesting article about bird friendly wind turbine in the Galapagos Islands. It seems that rather than just place the wind turbine at the best point for wind currents, the planners also took into consideration placement in terms of risk to birds.  The result: no bird fatalities yet! This would seem to suggest that wind turbines can be used with proper planning. This flies the face of what many opponents believe so it will be interesting to see how such planning can develop in future projects.

Galapagos bird brains survive wind turbines

Bird Crashes and Revives

Not all birds who crash into buildings die or become seriously injured.  This Cooper Hawk flew into a Bangor Maine office window and was able to be rehabilitated.  Coopers usually eat other small birds, but during the bird’s rehab, it was fed tasty mice!

Bird that crashed into window returns to wild after rehab

Photo Courtesy of Dunbar Gardens

Birds and Crabs get a break in NJ

New Jersey gave a boost to both the horseshoe crab and the red knot. The red knot relies on horseshoe crab eggs as an essential food.  The red knot visits the mid-Atlantic coast on its yearly migration.  This break came in the form of a law that will ban horseshoe crab harvesting such time as the crab and red knot populations return to normal level (that to be determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service).

New Jersey protects crab to save rare shore bird

Will the Swallows stay on Capistrano?

There is already plenty of evidence that climate change is causing a lot of shifting in ecosystems.  Here, a swallow in the UK was monitored from November to the end of February where it staying in Cornwall.  Problem is, swallows in the part of the world usually migrate to Africa for the winter.  This past winter saw more and more stories like this and one has to wonder if the seasons are becoming blurred to our Avian friends?

Climate change confuses migrating birds

Downtown Lights Off - Saves Energy and Birds

Birds often fly into tall buildings and die or become severely injured as a result.  This is especially problematic in migration season. Minneapolis/St. Paul is taking a pro-active approach to this problem by asking building owners to turn off unnecessary lights after hours. This apparently makes the buildings less visible to the birds and therefore less of a hazard. As a side benefit, the building owners that comply with this get to see energy savings. Why aren’t all cities doing this?

What birds don’t see can’t hurt them (as much)

Do Owls have Bad Eyes?

The other day I was driving down a road in our neighborhood and a pigeon flew across my path.  I smacked it unfortunately.  I usually don’t bother slowing down (I was only going about 25 because it’s a residential street) because they usually get out of the way. Pigeons seem to be the slowest of all. Maybe this one just ate too much and couldn’t get out of the way in time? But Pigeons are tough birds; I looked back only to see it fly off after it gathered its composure. What about owls? I rarely see them let alone hit them. This truck driver reports hitting them on a regular basis and the explanation (part humor and part common bird sense) is really worth a read!

Even owls can be blind-sided