Bird Problems

Lloyd:

I have found a great solution for anyone trying to seed a new lawn, but the pesky birds keep eating all the grass seeds. Mix in a 1-lb bag of generic-brand non-instant white rice into the grass seeds before spreading. The birds will "fill-up" on the rice, and not come back.
Regards,
Lloyd

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James Calivar:

[nq:1]I have found a great solution for anyone trying to seed a new lawn, but t=he pesky birds keep eating ... rice into the grass seeds before spreading. =A0The bird=s will "fill-up" on the rice, and not come back. Regards, Lloyd[/nq]
We've got the same problem down here, mate. No rice for our birds, though. We mix in small bits of Alka Seltzer with the seed, and I can report handily that you will never see the birds again!

James

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Ted Byers:

[nq:2]I have found a great solution for anyone trying to ... "fill-up" on the rice, and not come back. Regards, Lloyd[/nq]
[nq:1]We've got the same problem down here, mate. =A0No rice for our birds, though. =A0We mix in small bits of Alka Seltzer with the seed, and I can report handily that you will never see the birds again! James[/nq]Neither option mentioned is kind. I don't know that white rice is healthy for the birds, or if it is dangerous for them, but I'd prefer to provide a low cost, healthy source of food elsewhere to attract them away from the seed I want to germinate. I certainly would not provide a 'food' that they may 'enjoy' unless I knew for certain that it is healthy for them too, just as I would not provide an abundance of candy to small children (I'd be more likely to provide grapse or raisins or some other fruit I know they'd enjoy).

However, have you seen birds explode because of the Alka Seltzer; when the gas formed when it dissolves in the gut, and they can't release it, the pressure inside builds until catastrophe for the birds: birds are not as able as mammals to pass excess gas (but even then, when my father was young, and on his father's farm, he'd seen cows that couldn't release all the gas in their gut and watched his father help them release it: trust me, you DON'T want the details of that procedure).

There are options that don't involve killing the birds or making them sick. It is generally best to try to work with nature than to fight against it.

You generally don't have plant communities being annihilated by birds (though like many animals, an abundance of them can change community composition, sometimes to the point where they have to move on), so if nature is left to take it's course, one will have plenty of greenery provided there is sufficient water and warmth; on the assumption WE don't poison the site for most living things.
On smaller areas, a strategy that is recommended to reduce problems with weeds is to overseed (once the seed germinates, overseeding results in too much competition for weed seedlings to compete). But that practice can reduce to a tolerable level the impact of loss of seed to the few birds that may pass by.While birds may not have the highest IQs on the planet, they are not likely to land to feed on a site occupied at the time by a predator, such as a dog or cat. Few small animals are suicidal enough to present themselves as an easy meal for their predators. I have relatives living on a rural site and they have routinely provided small quantities of cat food outside their back door. Not only do they get the pleasure of watching the feral cats, but there isn't even one rodent on their property, and all the birds they see or hear either remain in the trees or forage on neighboring properties where there are almost no cats.

They simply do not land on the ground where there are numbers of cats, and the bird feeders they put up are high enough, and designed in a way, that cats have little or no chance of getting to the birds using them. There are some cats that are fit enough to jup high enough, and lucky enough, to catch a bird or two, but for the most part, the birds do frequent the bird feeders that have been put up, but more frequently when there isn't a cat in sight.

Therefore, their practice of supplementing the food supply of the feral cats gives them the best of both worlds. They can enjoy the cats and the birds, and no harm comes to either. I can't say the same about rodents, though, because they'd find it hard to evade the cats and no-one has seen a rodent on the site since they first moved in.

A little consideration of the behavioural ecology of small animals, or any animal that can become a pest, will lead a wise man or woman to an option for reducing damage done by "pest" species to a tolerable level in a way that causes little or no harm.
Cheers,
Ted

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Bird Problems

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