The Bird Feeding Connection

Ethan watches and counts the birds at his Illinois home for the

annual citizen science project, the Great Backyard Bird 

Count--a 21^st century “practical” reason to feed the birds. 

 Participants submit data via eBird, an online checklist program.

 Sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon

 Society and Bird Studies Canada, the now global GBBC count

 reveals clues about the health of birds and our shared environment.

Photograph by Cindy Brown. Courtesy of the National Audubon Society

We three authors are excited to have our book debut on America’s WildRead, especially in conjunction with International Migratory Bird Day 2015.

In the journey we took while researching and writing Feeding Wild Birds in America: Culture, Commerce and Conservation, we discovered how many of the early efforts to promote the practice of bird feeding initiated in the Bureau of Biological Survey (as WildRead-ers know, one of the agencies that preceded the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service). BBS bird feeding flyers, posters and Farmer’s Bulletins along with bird feeding activities and materials produced by state Audubon Societies and bird preservationists, helped the general public gain “sympathy” with common birds. Much of this bird feeding enthusiasm came in the years just before passage of important bird protection laws, including the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. So we are delighted to have our book connected with this year’s International Migratory Bird Day and to share some of our stories—and behind-the-scenes stories—with you.


Paul J. Baicich, Margaret A. Barker, Carrol L. Henderson

           

Happy International Migratory Bird Day 2015!

We will cover several different bird feeding periods over the course of the next several weeks. And we look forward to hearing from you!  [Editor note:  Use the "Comment" link below to respond and start a conversation with the authors]

* * * * * * * * *

What follows is an excerpt from the Introduction in Feeding Wild Birds inAmerica: Culture, Commerce and Conservation just published by Texas A&M University Press.

Bird feeding in the 21^st century is still all about the basics: food, water and shelter. But, oh, so much has changed. Emerging out of the bird protection and conservation movement at the turn of the last century, bird feeding—while still simple and enjoyable—has since evolved into an absorbing avocation and an immense business.

This drawing of a vintage bird-feeding tray at a window is reprinted from W. L. McAtee, How to Attract Birds inNortheastern United States, Farmer’s Bulletin No. 621, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1914. Small evergreen trees or branches were common additions to bird-feeding shelves in the early 1900s

Contrast the modern bird-feeding scene of today with high-tech feeders offering specialty foods in birdscaped gardens, to the simple one suggested by Chester A. Reed in his early Guide to the Land Birds East of the Rockies(1906): “By tying suet to limbs of trees in winter, and providing a small board upon which grains, crumbs, etc. may be sprinkled, large numbers of winter birds may be fed; of these, probably only the Chickadees will remain to nest, if they can find a suitable place.”

In the decades that followed and into the 1930s and 1940s, bird feeding grew into a widespread activity in the United States, so much so that by 1943 the venerable ornithologist Alexander Sprunt, Jr. could write in Audubon magazine, “Probably no one phase of activity connected with birds so engages the attention of the amateur student as does the attraction of birds to a feeding station. In every county, we can find someone who puts out food for the birds, particularly during the winter. Where and when such procedure began is lost in past ages, but it is not necessary to know the history to understand and sympathize with the idea.”

Although Alexander Sprunt may have claimed decades ago that it was not necessary to know the history of bird feeding to appreciate the concept and practice, the authors of this narrative are interested indeed in exploring some of the background, practices and consequences of bird feeding, at least for the United States.

Much flavors the story of bird feeding. It is now a considerable tale, involving changing relationships over generations between two main parties: birds and humans. Squirrels, hawks, cats and other animated beings enter the story, too, some more often than others. There is the “discovery of seeds, the development of different feeders, and the creation of businesses, wholly intertwined. Also woven into the story are the worlds of education, publishing, commerce, professional ornithology, citizen science, all of which have embraced bird feeding at different times and from different perspectives.

 

On the one hand, the story of bird feeding is the story of innovation and entrepreneurial ingenuity, while at the same time it is the recounting of how Americans have come to perceive and value the natural world.

Feeding Wild Birds in America: Culture, Commerce, and Conservation by Paul J. Baicich, Margaret A. Barker, and Carrol L. Henderson

International Migratory Bird Day is right around the corner so in celebration of this event a WildRead reading frenzy will begin  May 1 with the brand new, hot-off-the-press book,  Feeding Wild Birds in America Culture, Commerce, and Conservation published by Texas A&M University Press.  Two of the three authors will moderate this blog discussion so stay tuned for their posts beginning May 1, 2015.

Photo by V. Andolini

Meet Paul Baicich!

Paul Baicich has been an active birder since his early teens in New York City. A former employee of the American Birding Association (1991-2003), he worked at various capacities with ABA. He co-authored (with the late Colin Harrison in 1997) A Guide to the Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Paul also has co-led a number of birding tours and workshops to far-off Alaska locations. He is on the Management Board of the Prairie Pothole Joint Venture and has served as a consultant to the National Wildlife Refuge System on issues of birder visitation. He writes regularly for a number of birding magazines and is also co-editor of the popular monthly Birding Community E-bulletin.

Photo by Adam S. Frankel

Meet Margaret Barker!

Margaret A. Barker, Chesapeake Bay area writer and educator, spent many happy childhood hours watching feeder birds at her East Tennessee home. After a broadcast journalism career in the southeast, including WGST radio news, Atlanta, she received an M. S. in environmental education through the Audubon Expedition Institute and Lesley University. She interned with the National Audubon Society’s Washington, D. C. office before joining the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. There she worked with Project FeederWatch and other bird education programs. She later managed the Cornell Department of Education’s Kids Growing Food school garden program, conducting teacher trainings in New York City and elsewhere. She co-authored The FeederWatcher’s Guide to Bird Feeding (HarperCollins, 2000) and The Audubon Birdhouse Book (Voyageur Press, 2013). Her articles have appeared in popular birding magazines. In the 1990s, she wrote the “Backyard Birding” column for the Ithaca Journal (Gannett) newspaper.

Meet Carrol Henderson!

Carrol L. Henderson has been the supervisor of Minnesota's Nongame Wildlife Program in the Department of Natural Resources since 1977. He is the winner of numerous conservation awards and the author of ten books, including Woodworking for Wildlife; Wild About Birds-the DNR Bird Feeding Guide; Landscaping for Wildlife; Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs; Birds in Flight: the Art and Science of How Birds Fly; Field Guide to the Wildlife of Costa Rica; Birds of Costa Rica: a field guide; Reptiles, Amphibians of Costa Rica: a field guide; and Butterflies, Moths and Other Invertebrates of Costa Rica: a field guide. He is co-author of Lakescaping for Wildlife and Water Quality and Traveler's Guide to Wildlife in Minnesota. He and his wife Ethelle have led over 50 international birding trips since 1987 to destinations throughout Latin America, New Zealand, Kenya, and Tanzania.

Monarch Dream...Robert Michael Pyle from "Chasing Monarchs"

Robert Michael Pyle at a recent reading
 in Astoria, Oregon/
Photo credit/Carol Newman, with permission

Excerpt from Chasing Monarchs: Migrating with the Butterflies of Passage (p. 167)

...I didn't know when the wishful conjuring left off and the dream began.

The western edge of vision has the fiery intensity of an Arizona Highways sunset, but that isn't what I see.  The sun bores straight and narrow through a hole in dull clouds that rub into the horizon free of color.  The oranges and reds come entirely from the backlit wings of butterflies: four times as many gold-foil panes as the hundreds of monarchs clinging to the tamarisk at the top of the wash, where I have followed them to their evening's rest.  Their soft cluster-flutter keeps up until the dusk turns cool enough for wool, for fire, for stillness.  Then the brilliance fades to a vague peach glow in the brush of the bivoac.  Soon the desert stars take over even more, even brighter than the butterflies themselves.

When I sleep, cocooned just yards away from the hunkered bunch, there is nothing to tell me the monarchs are here beside me save memory and faith.  I wake and turn as the moon rises full.  In its werelight, I think I can see dull color in the cluster, a smudge on the night sky like bruised persimmons: enough to make me think it's real.

And when the cold sunrise again picks out their hue from the wispy blur, the low beams, raking straight across instead of burning in from behind, daub the mass more nutmeg than cinnamon, more maple than marmalade.  As some of the venturers spread their wings to capture the early rays, their massed palette grows brighter by measures, then takes on an oriole intensity I've never seen before.

The shivering begins -- first one, then several, then all together -- until the entire tamarisk looks ready to take off.  A magic degree is reached...the first great glider rises...and one by one, all the monarchs launch into another day.

Skyful of monarchs/Photo credit:Thea Linnaea Pyle

This, then, is how exodus goes.  You get through the night as best you can, shiver against the chill, accept what the next day has to offer as if you had a choice, and then -- just go!  I do the same, and I try to follow.  But I haven't even stuffed my sleeping bag, and already the monarchs are sailing over the far flat, sliding across the endless desert, sideways to the rising sun.

I blink and they are already gone.