ex WGS Hamm wrote:

"Josie" wrote in message
...
I appreciate that the current conventional wisdom suggests that wildlife
is unable to differentiate between safe and dangerous foods; but how
true is it? Is it just hearsay; hypothesis? Birds in my garden don't
touch blue slug pellets, for example. It was once thought that adult
blue tits would suffocate their young by feeding them whole peanuts -
this is now known to be untrue. I remain unconvinced.
If blue tits are fed when they have young in the nest, it isn't so much
that they would be daft enough to shove a whole peanut down the baby's
throat but that they would feed peanuts at all. Baby blue tits need copious
amounts of high protein live food like green and blackfly and other insects.
I think you are getting confused about the reason you must stop feeding wild
birds in spring. It is because they will take the easy option and feed
youngsters innapropriate food. Bead will swell and fill a baby's crop so
that it won't beg for the food it really needs to survive.
The birds may not eat the blue slug pellets, but they will eat the slugs
which have eaten the pellets and still be poisoned.
You remain unconvinced because you have not done any research and are not
really interested enough to do any research I'm afraid.
Ignorance kills more animals and birds (wild and captive) than outright
cruelty does, sadly.

Indeed. FWIW people who know put out bird food throughout the year, as
per current advice. You can find more information about this on the RSPB
website http://tinyurl.com/4jc87 (if it works).

In short, in general, the adults eat the food we provide, which allows
them to take a higher proportion of desirable insects to their
nestlings.

regards
sarah


--
Think of it as evolution in action.