We have two mourning doves in the tree outside. They come by every once in awhile. Yesterday one of them stood on the railing and looked at me for awhile. I believed she was saying, "Umm, yeah, about the peanuts? We aren't really fans."
See, for most of the year we've had multiple bird feeders up. Different shapes and sizes including just an open dish. There have been peanuts, seeds, dried fruit, sunflower seeds, and of course hummingbird nectar. But a few weeks (maybe 6 now? Pandemic time dontchaknow) we started to notice that the HUGE influx of pine siskins were having some issues. There were some that were acting a little odd. Puffy, lethargic. Then Brent found a dead bird.
A few days before I had been looking through my Facebook stories and a friend's boys had found a dead bird and had a funeral for it. Really sweet story but there was a comment under it from someone who said, "Pine Siskins are really susceptible to salmonella poisoning." It popped back to the top of my head and off to research I went.
And yeah, they are super susceptible to it. Their normal habitat is, well, you can guess from the name. And forests and woods are a lot more spread out than porch and backyard feeders. But with the loss of habitat from building and forest fires and the drought they have come down into the cities to take advantage of those feeders.
But they were spreading a killing disease amongst themselves.
So we pulled in all of the feeders. Dumped the feed, washed everything. Cleaned up the porch and raked the area under the porch to discourage them from gathering there. And we waited to see if they would move on.
It took awhile. They would come and land on the hooks and stare at us. They would hop around looking for scraps. We felt badly. We had been feeding them, and the other birds who were like, We didn't do anything! We can handle this! But our good intentions were literally killing them. So...we waited.
Last week we put out some peanuts for the squirrel. Just plain peanuts, no extra seeds or fruit. We didn't even put out the water dish again. And with the peanuts the Jays came back. Then the black capped chickadees. They would all snatch some peanuts and go on their way. And of course the squirrels.
But yesterday the mourning doves came back...so we decided to put a little of the seed and dried fruit mix in with the peanuts.
We've had a good collection of birds this morning. Finches have come back. Some birds that I don't know what they are except pretty...so far no pine siskins. Which is good. Because if they flock back we'll have to take everything back down (except the hummingbird food) and start again.
Because it's our responsibility. Even though we love to see the massive amounts and varieties of birds just covering all the feeders we know that that crowd isn't good for the pine siskins. The finches don't crowd like that, and as city birds aren't as vulnerable. The Jays pretty much scare everyone off when they show up so they don't deal with the crowds either. And the hawks love the crowds but that's a different story...
But the pine siskins can't survive without us shutting things down.
And honestly, I didn't intend on this being a metaphor for Covid-19 but it sure turned into that didn't it?
The virus is killing us. Some of us aren't as susceptible to it, some of us don't deal with crowds. But for some of us we are dying. And as a society we should be as responsible for our most vulnerable as Brent and I have been for the pine siskins shouldn't we?
We shut everything down for awhile and are now in our slow open. (one dish of seeds, started with just peanuts now there are seeds and dried fruit as well) It will be few more weeks before we try out the other feeders. We need to make sure the pine siskins have moved on before that happens. Because if they all come flocking back we'll just have to shut it all down again. Because what we were doing before was killing them.
Even when the other birds were giving us guilt looks, even when we knew that the Jays could handle it. And the finches and the chickadees. Even when the squirrel pooped all along the rail to let us know how mad he was; we still kept the feeders down, because it wasn't worth killing the pine siskins over.
And that's the truth of it.
When we didn't know that crowded feeders were killing them it wasn't our fault. But as soon as we knew, if we didn't act, we would have been.
If we know that crowds spread the virus, and we do. If we know that wearing a mask can help protect people, and we do. If we know that a little isolation right now while we wait for a vaccine will keep the virus from spreading even more, and we know that. If we know all of those things and we ignore them, then we are saying that killing our more vulnerable isn't that big of a deal. You might not like that that is what it's saying, but it is isn't it?
We have to weigh the risks. Still. It's not over yet and we need to stop acting like it is.
Be glad when you have immunity. Either from surviving the virus yourself or from getting your vaccines. But until that happens be careful. Not just for yourself, but for the pine siskins among us.
Wear your mask.
Keep your distance.
Stay home when you can.
And then eventually, we'll get to the point where we have more than peanuts to look forward to.
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