Fledgling Friday

Well, Thursday actually but what are you gonna do.

A very unworried mother winter wren let me watch her feed four or five or maybe more of her chicks for quite some time. They could fly but not well. None of the pictures with more than one chick came out. They were foraging in the shrubs along the creek lines. There was also a bushtit following them around as if it were a surrogate baby… or mother. Crows ate the bushtit nest last year.

I knew there was at least one nest around—also have Seattle wrens—but couldn’t find it. They went so far as to fill up the wren nest boxes I put out but they didn’t use them. This was mysterious until I read that the males will build many nests on spec but only finish one if a female gives the high sign.

The Anna’s hummingbird chicks are gone too. I suspect they all waited for a crappy day—yesterday was sunny—to fledge. House cats kill so many songbirds that I also suspect this behavior is a relatively recent adaptation. Goodbye shot below. A little better than the last one. I am guessing the one in front is a male from the early signs of magenta spots on his head. I think it’s interesting that they fledge before their beaks grow out all the way. Maybe at first they stick with the small spiders and insects they’re raised on.

While we’re on the topic—this from the US Fish and Wildlife site–

Americans keep an estimated 60 million cats as pets. Let’s say each cat kills only one bird a year. That would mean that cats kill over 60 million birds (minimum) each year - more wildlife than any oil spill.

That doesn’t even take into account the large number of feral cats and dogs who don’t just kill for pleasure.

University of Wisconsin ornithologist, Dr. Santley Temple estimates that 20-150 million songbirds are killed each year by rural cats in Wisconsin alone.

That’s just one state. Multiply it by 50 and it’s north of a billion.

Feline predation is not “natural.” Cats were domesticated by the ancient Egyptians and taken throughout the world by the Romans. Cats were brought to North America in the 1800s to control rats. The “tabby” that sits curled up on your couch is not a natural predator and has never been in the natural food chain in the Western Hemisphere.

Responsible pet owners keep their cats indoors.

In many states it’s legal to shoot any animal—provided it isn’t Federally protected—that makes its way onto your property. We will never run out of cats. We already have and will continue to run out of many song birds. If you love animals and care about ecological diversity, I recommend finding out if it’s legal where you live and, if so, shooting every cat that wanders through your yard. There are plenty of lethal air guns which are legal to discharge in places regular arms are not.

If you’re the kind of cat owner who cries for all the oil covered animals when things like Exxon Valdez happen but only feel squeamish pride when Kitty brings you another rare finch, you need to reexamine your priorities. It only would have taken one cat ten minutes to kill every one of those wren chicks including the one pictured above.