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107
Spr ing 2012
Escarpment Magaz ine
So is there anything you can do to help out migrant songbirds?
Keeping their habitat intact is of course the number one pri-
ority. While many species will stick to their insect diet and
ignore your feeders, others will welcome the extra food
you can provide. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds come
immediately to mind, for these tiny zipsters come
readily to feeders for sugar water. Baltimore Ori-
oles will do the same, especially if you provide or-
ange feeders with larger feeding holes, or pieces
of soft fruit.
Some species of adult birds will come to regular
seed feeders, although we find it is more effective
to switch over white safflower seeds instead of black
oilseed for the spring and summer. Purple Finches and Rose-
breasted Grosbeaks love safflower, and just as important, Common
Grackles do not. Grackles tend to come in flocks to feed on black
oilseed, and they also are notorious predators of eggs and young birds.
If necessary, you can purchase a cage for most types of tube feeders to
deter Grackles, but try switching seeds first.
For bird lovers, spring is the season of the great change-over. The Pine
Siskins and Redpolls that feasted on Nyger seed in winter disappear on
their own migration to their northern nesting grounds. In their place we
welcome back the warblers and thrushes and sparrows that enliven our
summer woodlands with flashes of colour and song for the next few brief
months. Enjoy!
|E|
Ron Reid is a Washago naturalist and birdfeeder. His wife Janet Grand operates The Bird House
Nature Company stores in downtown Collingwood and Orillia, and at Barrie Cedar Point plaza.
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A bird doesn't sing because
it has an answer, it sings
because it has a song.
~Maya Angelou
{
Red Breasted Nuthatch - a favourite
of Dorothy Crysler - avid birder, artist,
news correspondent and author,
beloved Mother, Grandmother,
neighbour and friend.
1919-2012
You are missed.