Hi, Tweets

I'm on the ukbirdnet and there have been a couple recent notes regarding
fish-eating birds eating bread, etc. Do our similar birds here - herons,
mergansers, etc. - do the same thing occasionally? I haven't really
noticed it. Never gave thought to birds being *carnivorous*!

Diann MacRae, Bothell, tvulture at halcyon.com

Following are the two excerpts:

<<We have had Red-breasted Mergansers on a local Millpond this winter: they,
as have many other species of wildfowl before them, quickly adapted to the
regular feeding by the locals of the Mallards, Swans and Black-headed Gulls
and have joined the action. I wonder whether the tacky Supermarket white
bread that seems to be what most duck feeders manage gets between their
'saws' and gums them up!

-----Original Message-----
From: Eero A Haapanen <ehaapane at cc.helsinki.fi>
To: Mark Kuiper (Birdguide) <markui at globalxs.nl>
Cc: BIRDCHAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU <BIRDCHAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>;
ebn at otax.tky.hut.fi <ebn at otax.tky.hut.fi>
Date: 05 January 1998 17:30
Subject: Re: Grey Heron eating bread

>Goosanders eating bread
>
>1989 I saw in Helsinki quite tame wintering Goosanders (Mer mer)
>eating bread with Mallards. This was very
>astonishing for me, usually Goosanders are not
>tame in Finland - and are they not carnivors also ? You always learn
>new things, at least this you learn with birds.
>
>best regards,
>
>Eero A. Haapanen
>5.linja 7 C 59
>00530 Hki 53
>p. 701 6002
>ehaapane at cc.Helsinki.FI
>