I'm intrigued by the comments above on the lines of "don't feed anything; leave wildlife to take care of itself; don't intervene". Too late, I'm afraid. We intervened when we started building cities and roads and airports, when we diverted rivers to irrigate our farms, when we domesticated some animals and hunted others to extinction, cut down forests, heated the sky ...... you get my drift?
So, do you want to call a halt to all the captive breeding and other conservation programmes that are trying to preserve endangered species and a bit of wilderness for them to live in? Repeal CITES? Let the poachers go after the rhino horns and ivory and pangolin scales? Shall we all fill in and plant up our wildlife ponds, and cancel our RSPB subs?
In much of the developed world, wildlife lives in cities and towns because we've left them hardly anywhere else. What little countryside we've left them isn't all that safe, thanks to the chemicals sprayed around by farmers; and I'm not blaming them, they are business people who naturally want the highest return for the least investment. Flocks of birds roost in cities because the air temperature is a couple of degrees warmer than in the surrounding country.
So I shall carry on feeding birds in my garden, I'll keep my woodpile and hedgehog house, and maintain my abstinence from herbicides, pesticides and all other 'cides.
As an ecologist, my advice, is do not artificially feed wild animals. It creates dependency and often nuisance for other people.
Feeding stations become disease central where species that would never normally interact in the wild, come into regular contact.
It only takes a little more effort to plant for wildlife, providing natural winter food and efforts to provide habitat will be far more beneficial to wildlife than food.
We have a huge variety of wildlife in the garden, do not artificially feed any of it. They are not pets.
Last year the trees next to me were removed at Easter, despite it being nesting season. The local birds not only lost their nests and had to start again, but their foraging sites as well. I bought live mealworms and lots of seed, and the robin and blackbird managed to raise a later brood. Should I have let them starve?
But @Greenbird... that’s what everyone says ... just once won’t matter ... what difference will my action make? ... and if everyone says that we end up with the current situation that we have in many towns and cities where there are populations of mange-ridden mal-nourished foxes causing problems and spreading disease ... then what are you going to do with them ... there’s an outcry from the tender hearted if they have to be culled.
As for deer ... the sensible answer is for humans to use them as a food resource ... after all, we are part of the animal kingdom and a top predator ... no need to introduce one ... we’re already here. Properly thought through and managed venison could be a useful source of prime protein in the UK, just as it used to be.
Agreed regarding venison. I believe that's what they're doing at Knepp.
But I think that just as unrealistic as asking people to stop feeding ducks. I couldn't imagine the marketing campaign needed to make venison/rabbit a popular meat. And we are the top predator, but the human race is unique in our greed. Farming deer would become more profitable than hunting deer. Our we'd hunt them to the extent where we have to farm them to meet demand (ala Salmon)
I think my argument is based on this being a one off feeding. Not a regime that they could become dependant on.
Foxes are beneficial pest control and deterant to gardens and even more so to allotments. They occasional make a mess, they harass our caged chickens/rabbits, but I do think they've got an unfair rep in recent years. I've never personally fed foxes, but I wouldn't hesitate to toss a vixen a raw chicken thigh if she strolled through my garden one evening.
Plenty of farmed venison available from farm shops and butchers in East Anglia ... rabbit too ... and wild rabbit in season too. If only people weren’t so misguided as to object to wild deer being shot as humanely as possible, the numbers could be sensibly controlled and excessive damage to crops and woodlands avoided.
As for feeding ducks in the park, the problem usually occurs when the quantity of food results in more animals/birds than the habitat can sustain. Not often a problem in a park ... very much a problem in a small town I know where feral poultry have increased to a number that causes a problem for other local inhabitants ... including humans.
It's a problem in my local parks/waterways (Black Country) Especially with Canada Geese.
The amount of food being fed has artificially inflated the population, so without the food many of them would either starve or turn to alternative sources (like the herring gulls mentioned earlier) - and deplete the resources needed by more fragile species, add too much nutrients to the water and destroy the aesthetic of our parks.
I visited East Anglia last autumn, the amount of Muntjac along the Broads shocked me compared to previous years.
Another problem in the Black Country - crayfish. Tie a peice of bacon to a line and toss it into any canal and you'll have a crayfish in seconds. Literally crawling with them.
Ducks live on our local canal. They and the swans are fed by lots of people there. We have a pair of Mallards that turn up at Easter -ish each year. Sometimes they sit on the pond. Sometimes they sit under the magnolia. They come to the patio doors and she taps on the window. We think they are the same pair that have been coming for five years. I used to buy duck food, but now they just have sunflower hearts like the other birds, and the odd mealworm. By June, they will have gone back to wherever they came from. Good or bad?
Last year the trees next to me were removed at Easter, despite it being nesting season. The local birds not only lost their nests and had to start again, but their foraging sites as well. I bought live mealworms and lots of seed, and the robin and blackbird managed to raise a later brood. Should I have let them starve?
Unfortunately it is totally anecdotal as to whether they would have starved or not. Perhaps without the ready food source they would have moved to habitat that was not under constant threat. Just a thought.
Sorry didn’t mean to cause an argument each to their own I feed the birds and provide water for bees and other insects. I don’t use pesticides of any kind and I think like most on here I love animals and all sorts of wildlife. Our gardens are havens for so many living things. Thanks for the advice, I will hope to spot vixen and cub again.
Posts
Feeding stations become disease central where species that would never normally interact in the wild, come into regular contact.
It only takes a little more effort to plant for wildlife, providing natural winter food and efforts to provide habitat will be far more beneficial to wildlife than food.
We have a huge variety of wildlife in the garden, do not artificially feed any of it. They are not pets.
But I think that just as unrealistic as asking people to stop feeding ducks. I couldn't imagine the marketing campaign needed to make venison/rabbit a popular meat. And we are the top predator, but the human race is unique in our greed. Farming deer would become more profitable than hunting deer. Our we'd hunt them to the extent where we have to farm them to meet demand (ala Salmon)
I think my argument is based on this being a one off feeding. Not a regime that they could become dependant on.
Foxes are beneficial pest control and deterant to gardens and even more so to allotments. They occasional make a mess, they harass our caged chickens/rabbits, but I do think they've got an unfair rep in recent years. I've never personally fed foxes, but I wouldn't hesitate to toss a vixen a raw chicken thigh if she strolled through my garden one evening.
http://www.nfws.org.uk/should-we-feed-foxes-in-our-garden.html
I suspect a biased study, but a study non the less.
Unfortunately, not even ecologists can agree on the right course of action to reach a balance. But it's interesting to hear others views.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It's a problem in my local parks/waterways (Black Country) Especially with Canada Geese.
The amount of food being fed has artificially inflated the population, so without the food many of them would either starve or turn to alternative sources (like the herring gulls mentioned earlier) - and deplete the resources needed by more fragile species, add too much nutrients to the water and destroy the aesthetic of our parks.
I visited East Anglia last autumn, the amount of Muntjac along the Broads shocked me compared to previous years.
Another problem in the Black Country - crayfish. Tie a peice of bacon to a line and toss it into any canal and you'll have a crayfish in seconds. Literally crawling with them.
https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/terrapin-spotted-during-inflatable-kayak-norwich-river-adventure-1-5587169
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.