{"id":8333,"date":"2014-01-18T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2014-01-18T17:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=8333"},"modified":"2014-01-18T08:33:34","modified_gmt":"2014-01-18T13:33:34","slug":"feeding-wild-birds-do-you-should-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2014\/01\/18\/feeding-wild-birds-do-you-should-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeding wild birds – do you? Should you?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"To<\/a>

To feed or not to feed? Archive Photo of the Day 12\/27\/09: Gene Banker, Ellenburg NY.<\/p><\/div>\n

Has anyone ever settled the age-old debate over feeding wild birds? You know the divide I’m talking about, you may have a firm opinion yourself.<\/p>\n

One faction says feeding wild birds is harmless, even good. The other holds that it’s a bad practice. Obviously, it’s fun for the humans. But nay-sayers maintain it’s unhelpful or dangerous for the wildlife attracted – creatures may become dependent, throwing natural cause and effect cycles off-kilter. Neglected bird feeders are implicated in the spread of disease<\/a> too.<\/p>\n

As reported by Tom Spears for the Ottawa Citizen, that argument has come<\/a> to Quebec’s scenic Gatineau Park<\/a>, which has stopped keeping bird feeders that were very popular with winter skiers and snowshoers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an old issue in wilderness-style parks: Where to draw the line between preserving nature and giving visitors a good experience.<\/p>\n

Tony Bull, a retired Parks Canada manager, has been skiing in the park for years and was upset when the feeders came down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they just added a lot of life to the experience of skiing. You would stop and look at the birds and then you\u2019d go on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe forest is alive with birds and of course squirrels feeding underneath from the dropped seeds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve skied a couple of times (since the feeders were removed) and it\u2019s just dead. No squirrels, no birds, it\u2019s just a dead landscape and I think it\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Beyond the Gatineau Park debate, there’s a real mix of opinions and technical advice out there. Here’s something from the UK listing\u00a0several benefits of feeding<\/a> wild birds, which cautions such feeding should be consistant – don’t feed for half a winter and then suddenly stop.<\/p>\n

What’s your take on the topic?<\/p>\n

If you’d like to read more about it, the ever-useful Cornell Lab of Ornithology has this handy\u00a0informational site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

Bird feeders in Gatineau Park were popular with wildlife and skiers. Photo: Craig Miller<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Owl<\/a>

An owl watches the action at Huron Cabin. Photo: Craig Miller<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has anyone ever settled the age-old debate over feeding wild birds? You know the divide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[13994,880,11533,884,13484,1124,27],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8333"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8357,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8333\/revisions\/8357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}