Dan and tweeters,

Having worked in museums for all of my adult years, I can tell you that grit-eating birds are among the most common road kills received by museums as salvaged birds. Doves, pigeons, gallinaceous birds, and Horned Larks all feed on or at the edge of roads, as none of them crack seeds with their bills in the way that finches do, so they need the gravel to aid doing so in their stomach. I think corvids probably are similar, and when you see jays out at the edge of the road in forested areas early in the morning, I suspect they are getting grit, true or otherwise.

Thus I don't think putting out a few grit feeders will alleviate the problem, as it's happening all along our roadways. I don't know if there are any recommendations we could be giving to state Departments of Transportation, but someone might look into that.

The feeding of crossbills, siskins, grosbeaks and other winter finches along the highways, sometimes a great source of mortality, is probably not for grit but for some mineral(s) on the road, possibly even the salt put out by road departments. Fortunately that's a rare event.

Swallows sometimes land on roads in great numbers, and that's another thing altogether. That may even have to do with retained heat on the road surface.

Traffic on roads certainly represents significant mortality to birds and other animals, but other than very local fixes (tunnels for large mammals, special herp crossings in some very few areas), I don't think much has been done to alleviate it, and it's hard to imagine how such mortality can be reduced for birds. Very wide clearings along roads in forested areas probably keep small birds off the roads but also represent barriers to dispersal. Fewer and slower vehicles, anyone?

Dennis

On Dec 16, 2010, at 12:04 PM, tweeters-request at mailman2.u.washington.edu wrote:

> Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 20:24:41 +0000 (UTC)
> From: notcalm at comcast.net
> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Re: What did the birds do in cold weather
> before any paved roads
> To: Scott R a y <mryakima at gmail.com>
> Cc: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>
> Thanks, Scott.
>
> It seems the problem is not limited to these two species.
> If the primary reason to approach and land on or next to the road is a search for grit and more so than or not heat, perhaps we can arrange for certain small, off road, non- parking areas to be cleared for that purpose. Grit would certainly be easy to add. It might be an interesting experiment in mountain passes, if grit is not readily available in snow covered areas. It would be the equivalent of a small, protected area with ground level bird feeder (true grit only). The gulls on the other hand(great photo) are probably not looking for grit.
>
>
> However, I do not know if it is a significant problem. Does anyone have estimates of mortality for these situations? Perhaps it is rare.
> Have any of you supplied grit in a small area in your yard?
>
>
> Dan Reiff

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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