North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Thomas Olenio" <tolenio@sentex.net>]

Hi,

(Kind of off topic)

I do not understand people who feed birds year round.

In this day and age of "West Nile" why attract birds to your backyard, who  
in turn attract mosquitos that spread West Nile virus.

It would be like feeding/attracting flea ridden plauge rats during the  
dark ages.

Yes, some birds are nice to watch, and some bird songs are nice to hear,  
but a segement of our neighbbors are at risk.

I am not hyper worried about West Nile, but there are people who are at  
risk, and common courtesy would be to keep all safe.

If people want to feed birds, do it in the winter when food is scarce, and  
mosquitos are dead (and all the fruit picked).

Just my opinion.

It is ironic that in Vineland, Ontario that bird cannons and netting  
abound, yet people are intent on attracting birds with feeders, hurting  
the ag economy (in addition to West Nile risks).

Tom



On Fri, 2 Jul 2004 13:48:52 EDT, <DocKW@aol.com> wrote:

> Here is zone 5  southwest Connecticut we have the same squirrel
> pressure...cleaned 2 peach trees so far....and doing the others when  
> they have the time...
> I find there is NO end of squirrels as locals feed the birds year  
> round...