Subject: [Tweeters] Finches Eating from Road Surfaces
Date: Jul 21 17:53:36 2010
From: Kelly McAllister - mcallisters4 at comcast.net


I suppose it was the relationship to Sodium that led someone to believe that
Calcium Chloride could be used on roads without the unwanted attraction to
wildlife that results in collisions. This turned out to be a fallacy. The
animals still came to the road. Perhaps the animals have developed an
attraction to salt because of the need for sodium and they simply are not
able to distinguish between Sodium Chloride and Calcium Chloride so they are
drawn to ingest Calcium Chloride despite its insufficiency in meeting their
dietary needs. Badly need an affordable alternative that doesn't have the
attraction of salt.



Kelly McAllister



_____

From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Kelly
Cassidy
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 5:32 PM
To: 'Tweeters'
Subject: RE: [Tweeters] Finches Eating from Road Surfaces



I think Richard Carlson is most likely correct. It's probably no
coincidence that finches, which tend to be among the most herbivorous of
birds, are most likely to be seen foraging on road sides or campfire ashes.
Plants, with a few exceptions, have very little sodium and animals must have
sodium. Animals that eat other animals can get sodium from the animals they
eat, but animals eating only plants have to get sodium from some other
source, like sodium concentrated after evaporation of droplets or puddles,
salt licks, etc. Even if the road was not salted, I would guess that
puddles of evaporating water on the dark, warm road surface leave salty
residues on the gravel. Sounds like a good research question (if someone
hasn't already looked into it).



Kelly Cassidy