Bird News
I took down my bird feeder. It went from being a high end place for titmouses, wrens, cardinals, and the occasional painted bunting, to being a dive bar for sparrows with raucous comings and goings and food on the floor. I’m going to investigate other options, but for now I want peace on the porch. I’m leaving the bird bath, because everyone needs a drink and a good dousing and it’s fun to watch the birds flop around in the water, and I imagine it will be ever more popular as the summer wears on. I’ll be back with food but I just need to find the right feeder style.
I’m also taking steps to shut down my swallow hostel. The porches were beginning to look like highway overpasses, birds and their poop everywhere. It’s been a good fifteen year run, but like most good things it’s coming to an end. Or at least I hope it is. The birds are protected. I can discourage them, but once a nest is built and occupied, it’s hands off. I just have to watch the walls of the house and knock down mud. Tedious, but it needs doing. But the birds are tenacious in their willingness to keep trying. So, we’ll see who prevails.
Unfortunately, trying to find things to get rid of the sparrows and swallows takes me into the dark world of snake oil salesmen. The internet is a lot like the old wild west except the grifters no longer need to travel from town to town, they simply build a website, tout the benefits of their wares (proven or otherwise), and off they go. It’s discouraging, because people are gullible and they tend to find the answers they want rather than the answers they need. The snake oil people know this, and take full advantage, which makes sifting through all their chaff to find a few kernels of truth exhausting work.