Pictures of Birds at your feeders

[SquirrelFeeder]

1) Redbelly at the squirrel block

2 Redbelly & Redwings at the feeder

[Sage]

Originally Posted by Staff

I'm familiar with the basic public health concerns and moved my feeders up up up when the reality hit me to leave them them within reach wasn't in our best interests or theirs. I'll pm someone about this thread to provide you with the basics.

Thanks, Staff.

I just watched one deer licking the snow-covered ground around the birdfeeder to find the seed that lands there despite the tray underneath.

The four deer who come through this property come from a wooded area at the end of the road and enter more woods behind our condo. They appear to be a family and do come through singly as well. They look very healthy.

In other parts of town with alot of residential properties but also woods, there are larger numbers roaming around. Their wooded areas are shrinking drastically because of our development. Many think they should be killed or starved because they are in our way. Don't they deserve to live without us constantly trying to hinder their efforts to stay alive? They are not malicious; they are not dangerous killers; they do not try to hurt us and they are beautiful creatures who are as deserving of life as any other creature. IMO.

It will be a long long time before everyone who puts up bird feeders in winter will deal with having them as high as would be necessary to have the mandatory trays underneath be out of the deer's reach.

[Staff]

Many think they should be killed or starved because they are in our way. Don't they deserve to live without us constantly trying to hinder their efforts to stay alive? They are not malicious; they are not dangerous killers; they do not try to hurt us and they are beautiful creatures who are as deserving of life as any other creature. IMO.

We are unwittingly starving them out right now. We humans are systematically and methodically starving them out by repeatedly planting species they did not co-evolve with that they either can not digest or that don't have the nutrition afforded by the native species they replaced. It's cruel to starve animals out. We develop land recklessly then we pollute what's left with chemicals and invasives then we drive out their natural predators. It's a wonder some herds are as healthy as they are with their numbers at 5 x what they were in the early 1900's at a time when we hadn't lost as much habitat to development and weren't seeing nearly as many European, African, Asian, or Australian plants dotting the countryside. What we've done to the deer is inexcusable IMHO. They are a magnificent animal and one of the greatest blows we've dealt them was the elimination of their natural predators which kept their numbers in check. Natural predators ensure the health of the herd. And to top it off, we've failed the public miserably by not educating them on the why nots of allowing deer to congregate unnaturally. I'd rank that up there with Captain Eucyer passing out small pox infected blankets to our Native Americans. We are being left with some very serious public health concerns.

[Sage]

Staff person, you pretty much said what I said, so we agree on that.

I just googled for the "public health/deer" issue and didn't really come up with anything significant. The first item, from Purdue, talked of the horse and deer flies and the nuisance issue, not really any health concerns.
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:vD5BOsXrseUJ:extension.entm.purdue. edu/publications/E-246.pdf+deer+%22public+health%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd= 1&gl=us

Here's the google page: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&a...i=&safe=images

It would seem to me that a significant health risk would come up at least on the first page of results.

Could it be the deer are getting a bad rap from those with hidden agendas?

[Sage]

ps - nitely-nite, at least from this end~

[Sage]

Oh, before I go to bed, deer "herd", it's not UNnatural.

[Fearless Weeder]

Sage, the public health issues are a tremendous cause for concern, well beyond lyme disease. Hold your thought for a little bit and allow the person contacted a chance to respond. I suspect we're all on the same page.

Could it be the deer are getting a bad rap from those with hidden agendas?

No.

[Sage]

Staff, you may want to move this thread, which although a subject needing discussion, seems to now be hijacked from the thread's original intent.

I think it would be appropriate for the staff member to be identified when entering into these discussions with opinions.

[Fearless Weeder]

The thread doesn't need to be moved. It should be fine here. Discussions stray frequently. This isn't a bad thing.

[Staff]

That's fine. Photos of deer were posted. Sincere questions were asked.