I'm not sure if this is the book to which Steve is referring, but David S.
Wilcove's "The Condor's Shadow : The Loss and Recovery of Wildlife in
America" is an interesting read about the impact of (naturally occurring)
humans on our surroundings.

I don't recall it discussing bird feeding by humans, but it's been a while
since I read it.

Scott Carpenter
Portland, OR

On 2/24/06, sgmlod at aol.com <sgmlod at aol.com> wrote:
>
> Greetings All
>
> First of all -- I have a major alert for everyone -- nothing has been
> "natural" on this continent for about 10,000 years.
>
> We are totally fooling ourselves if we think even one spot is even
> remotely natural, especially in North America.
>
> I just finished a most interesting book on the extinction of megafauna in
> N. America, S. America, and Australia. Guess what? We did it. We introduced
> rats, we created grasslands with fire, and we hunted to extinction almost
> every animal bigger than a Elk. Though there is still some controversy over
> the megafaunal extinctions, our impact on habitat from first contact is not
> questioned. It is estimated that 8000 species of birds have become extinct
> on islands secondary to humans or our commensals (eg, rats, pigs).
>
> Our impacts now, of course, include such trivialities as global warming,
> etc.
>
> In my humble opinion, admittedly based on no scientific evidence, bird
> feeding is about the last thing we need to worry about when it comes to
> potentially negative impacts on the "natural" world. And given recreation
> choices, it probably sizes up pretty well against most other options. We've
> so much deflected the course of evolution in so many ways, I am bemused by
> the suggestion that birdfeeding is going to make the web of nature unravel
> and send evolution spiraling askew.
>
> Of course, I don't have any scientific evidence for such. We never will.
> Somewhere, one needs to apply this odd concept called Common Sense.
>
> Hmmmm
> Steven Mlodinow
> Everett WA
>
>
>
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>