06-02-2003, 01:07 AM
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More bird problems
In article ,
says...
In article , Sue & Bob Hobden
writes
"John wrote in message ...
I know this is a gardening group, and I am not off topic, honest!.
I have a wren and a wagtail attacking the moss between flags. If only
they
removed it all I would be very happy, however I suspect they are really
going after the insects not the moss.
Not so sure about that, the local Wren that lives in our Ivy normally
removes a lot of Sphagnum moss from my pots of Pleiones about now (I've seen
it fly off with it) and I've always assumed it was for nest building, anyone
confirm that?
Could well be, though perhaps it is a little early, but in any case it
won't be eating it, so I don't think any harm will come from dosing it
with Sodium chlorate.
I don't know how long the Chlorate would take to break down in the nest,
but you'd be exposing the female to long periods of any chemical while
she incubates. This would be true for the chicks too who would be
sitting in a nest with some dosed dead moss until fledging. The chicks
wouldn't have much feather protection for some time and would be
spending time with thin skin pressed to moss. I'd tend to try to avoid
sprying any chemical around if the sprayed stuff was likely to end up in
a nest.
Spraying where birds aren't collecting then yes, and spraying and
covering fine. The most recent surveys of bird life are showing such
drop offs in populations of small birds that I'd like to keep the risk
of even minor contamination as small as possible.
We see very little in our garden, but are so far assuming that it is
because we only started to implement the garden last year when we moved
in and cut down the leylandii. There are no shrubs, undergrowth or cover
that birds can use on their way to the feeding table as yet. This'll be
fixed in the next month or so (gardening schedule is slipping a lot due
to the puppy we gained in October and the baby on the way come July)
Warwick
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