The Cornell School of Ornithology has weighed in an has stated there is very little risk to songbirds from folks keeping their bird feeders filled:
There is currently very low risk of an outbreak among wild songbirds, and no official recommendation to take down feeders unless you also keep domestic poultry, according to the National Wildlife Disease Program. We will update this page as the situation develops.
Given both the Wisconsin and Minnesota DNR Departments are also not recommending taking down bird feeders, I resumed filling my feeders yesterday. By this morning I am back to having 200+ songbirds in the yard at one time, mainly migrating redpolls.
Yesterday I also spotted these two birds in the yard, even though they would never visit my feeders.
Brown Creeper
Fox Sparrow
A few other notes …
- The Lester River Kayak Race is this afternoon starting at 3:30 pm. While it would be an easy hike over to watch, given the current weather is 37F, a thunderstorm and sleety hard rain, I will remain inside unless things change significantly for the better.
- White Pelicans returned to Chambers Grove in Duluth a few days ago. The walleye spawn on the St. Louis River must be starting. The numbers of pelicans is still somewhat small.
- If the rain stops today, or at least lets up, a good birding spot from the car will be the Park Point Recreation Area. The little bay by the sailing club / boat launch will have a huge number of ducks and swans. There is NO WAY any bird will migrate into this NE wind off Lake Superior. Given all the inland lakes are still iced over, the bary represents some of the only open water to shelter and eat.
