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