Re: trains in the garden/birds

I do all of those things - despite one obnoxious neighbor grousing about a dead tree.  It's ok for his place to look like a bloody junkyard and he wants to gripe about one dead hackberry tree??
Get a life boy....

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Linda" <lja@direcway.com>
Reply-To: gardenchat@hort.net
Date:  Sun, 29 Dec 2002 12:31:25 -0700

>Most birds eat either insects or seeds, but not both.  Or not both unless
>they are having trouble finding their main food source.  The insect eaters
>are having the hardest time because insecticides are so widely used--many
>towns apply them whether individuals do or not.   I wouldn't worry about
>birds becoming dependent on bird feeders and losing the ability to find
>their own food.  The concern I have is the opposite--that so much of their
>natural habitat and food supply is being destroyed and replaced that they
>may not make it without additional food being provided by those who feed
>birds.  Avoiding insecticides is one of the best things you can do for
>birds.  Many of the insect eaters also eat berries, so shrubs that produce
>clean, un-sprayed berries are also good.  And if you provide sunflower seed
>and Niger, you will keep nearly all of the seed eaters happy.  The one
>concern I have with feeding seed, especially the inexpensive mixes, is that
>they attract house sparrows, and house sparrows are aggressive and have
>pushed some of the cavity nesters to the brink of extinction.  Loss of sites
>to build cavity type nests is also a problem, so if you can leave dead trees
>in place, that's a big help to birds as well.
>
>Linda in Wyoming
>
>    ----- Original Message -----
>From: "Janet Laytham" <jw.laytham@worldnet.att.net>
>To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
>Sent: Sunday, December 29, 2002 11:35 AM
>Subject: Re: [CHAT] trains in the garden/birds
>
>
>> Cathy,
>> Maybe it's an urban legend, but I understood that birds don't feed seeds
>to
>> their babes: they can't process it for that purpose.  They need insects
>and
>> worms.    But then, I haven't read the WSJ article.   My theory had been
>> that the birds would eat at the feeder for themselves and go on to gather
>> insects to feed their young.
>> Janet
>
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--
Pam Evans
Kemp TX/zone 8A
--

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