Subject: [Tweeters] Re: thistle feeder question & Pine Siskins
Date: Feb 21 20:02:46 2012
From: Pterodroma at aol.com - Pterodroma at aol.com


Sock feeders work great ...in DRYER climates. Nylon and don't rot and
little to no spillage. If you've got something going that results in lots of
seed accumulating on the ground, clean it up pronto and keep it tidy, get a
different feeder, or better yet, just stop. Niger rots and grows mold
fast, especially around here! Otherwise, the birds get into it, get sick,
spread it rapidly to others, and I suspect we are already on the cusp of a big
and widespread Pine Siskin salmonellosis outbreak guessing from the sudden
rash of "lethargic" Pine Siskin reports in recent days from all around the
area. If you've got "lethargic" siskins at your feeder now, they're likely
already infected. Once infected, they contaminate the feeder, the seed
currently in there, and quickly spread the disease to others. I quit niger
feeding permanently last century exactly because of this.

As is, I've got one Pine Siskin myself, first showed up on the sunflower
feeder house tray Sunday afternoon appearing fine and healthy but I
instantly suspected otherwise. Only one so far, all the others remain up in the
trees where they belong. Now, two days, 48 hours later, and by this evening
this one bird looked as expected, weak and in really bad shape. I nearly
caught it by hand at which point had I been successful, would have
mercifully squeezed it out of it's misery. It's doomed anyway and as long as it
lingers, the danger of spreading disease to other healthy feeder birds
(juncos, chickadees, nuthatches mostly, and some others including Varied Thrushes,
but no other siskins) rises. Even weather protected sock feeders or other
types of hanging thistle feeders aren't immune, just the overall general
dampness around here renders the seed damp and much too soon moldy. Pine
Siskins clinging to those all day long day after day contaminate the sock
itself with feces and salmonellas laden bacteria.

This typical winter-dry-sun-god forsaken place, the Pacific Northwest in
general totally sucks with respect to niger. Fortunately, not much else
sucks around here, just pretty much that. So, I'm an advocate of passing on
the niger and niger feeders all together and tend to stick with what works
best to keep your yard and feeder birds healthy, happy, and pleasant enough
to have around and watch without overdoing it, and even that if involving
seed of any kind, in moderation meaning putting out no more than your flock
of birds are likely to eat in any given day. As someone mentioned a few
days ago, Pine Siskins aren't in want of food around here as there is way more
than enough occurring naturally in the form of an inexhaustible abundance
of catkin laden alders not to mention all the conifers found everywhere.
Once they descend to the feeders for 'easy' picking but never move, then
there is something wrong.

Richard Rowlett
Bellevue (Eastgate), WA