Bob Sundstrom wrote:

>The fact that the starlings you have been watching favor the lawn as a
>feeding area brings to mind my favorite starling control method: replace the
>lawn with plantings and shrubs, and remove a principal food source for these
>amazingly successful birds.

I couldn't agree more. Starlings favor open country for feeding, and
they'd probably be birds of farmlands if it weren't for all the nesting
situations provided in cities and all the open parks and lawns that
simulate their preferred open country. As a neighborhood gets more and
more wooded, there are fewer places for starlings to feed. We don't have
any around our house in the winter because they look for more expansive
open areas then, but they are around in summer because there are lots of
nearby cavities in which to breed. They don't spend much time in our yard,
which has relatively resticted lawn space, but they do come to the fountain
to bathe, and as soon as suet is made available, they find it quickly.
We've had to put our suet in a special feeder for woodpeckers and
chickadees that is difficult of access for starlings.

What has dawned on me slowly, over time, is that there is absolutely
nothing I can do for birds by changing *my* bird-feeding habits, because
about 1 out of 3 households in my neighborhood feeds birds, and they know
nothing at all about the problems that can be caused by this activity. I
have finally come to the conclusion that we may have overdone it with our
encouragement of bird feeding, with bird seed and feeders in every grocery
and hardware store. Many, many people do this now who aren't knowledgeable
about birds and who haven't a clue that they might be killing birds by
attracting cats, having feeders at just the wrong distances from windows,
feeding pine siskins when they are contagious, etc. I've been in some
places out in the country where every house had an active hummingbird
feeder, and I suspect hummers were being supported at much higher densities
than is normal. What will this mean on their wintering grounds? Baltimore
Orioles winter in New England now, Evening Grosbeaks in north Florida - is
this a good thing? I don't know how to deal with it, but I think we have
created a monster.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html