West Seattle Birdcam

Though we’ve only been live for a few months, its time to say farewell unfortunately.  A change of jobs and an accompanying change in scenery await us in the next few weeks, so its time to pack the birdcam and fly south before the winter arrives.

I’ll leave the site up since its hosted free by WordPress, but I hope some other West Seattleite will open a virtual window on the wonderful wildlife in our midst and set up a cam.

Enjoy.

Its been about a month since we first heard about the salmonella outbreak and made adjustments. If the goal was to reduce the concentration of birds around the feeders to reduce the likelihood of transmission, we’ve achieved our goal. Reducing the number of feeders, the amount of feed in the feeders and letting them run completely dry for a few days has certainly reduced the number of birds in and about the yard. There still seem to be quite a few in the neighborhood foraging, so I think the strategy is working to spread them out.  On top of that, its been relatively hot and dry of late, so that should help too.

Its a bid sad not to see the flutter of activity we were seeing in spring time, but all things equal, its probably better for the birds until the outbreak subsides. We haven’t seen any sick or weakened birds, and so I’m fairly optimistic that things will contain themselves over time.

Also, with the reduced activity and a few other technical challenges, we’ve had the birdcam offline for a bit.  Hopefully, that’s all behind us too.

With the hot and dry weather though, keeping the bath clean has been more of a challenge.  We have become a frequent stop for neighborhood crows who have a penchant for dunking whatever they find in the bath to soften it before eating.  Who knows where they find this stuff, but one afternoon we found most of a hot dog bun bobbing in the birdbath.  Must be barbecue season.

We’ve been seeing baby Robins lately with the parents feeding them near the bath.  They are still quite unafraid and curious but we haven’t managed to get any decent pictures yet.

The birds are not pleased we’ve decided to adjust in light of the salmonella warning. Here they are staging a protest while the Birdcam feeder is offline for cleaning and adjustments.

We’ve been seeing quite a few regular visitors lately at all our feeders, so needless to say, we’re dismayed about the outbreak. We haven’t seen anything in our neighborhood, but we intend to try to do what we can to help out.

After doing some research, we came up with an initial strategy. We’ll see how it goes and adjust if necessary.

First, we’re taking our hopper feeder off line for a while. Quite a few birds visit this one and there is usually quite a bit of feed that gets knocked to the ground where others forage. This is a wooden feeder that’s harder to clean, so by taking it offline, we reduce the concentration of birds on it and under it.

That leaves a thistle feeder (tube and peg perches) and the tube feeder which has the Birdcam on it in proximity. We also have some feeders in the back, so again, this will help reduce the concentration of visitors in close proximity.

For the Birdcam feeder, we are removing the seed tray on the bottom. More birds and bigger birds tend to perch on the seed tray and feed on the bits that get knocked out of the feeder. Eliminating this tray means fewer birds on the feeder and no place to concentrate a place of transmission. It will be easy enough to clean under the feeder and with the reduced number of visitors, this should help out.

We have two feeders in the back, so one of those is going off line too. The remaining feeder in the back is a small tube feeder without any seed tray which can be cleaned very easily. The various web sites recommend these type feeders so there is only a limited amount of birds congretating at the feeders at any one time which is part of the goal to reduce sources of transmission.

On top of that, we’ll try keeping the amount of feed in each of the feeders lower so that they are empty more often and there is less waste when we clean them. On cleaning, we’ll step up the frequency of cleaning the feeders and use the recommended 10% bleach solution to help keep things in check.

Hopefully, with a little additional vigilance on everyone’s part, we wont have to shut them all down.

The state of Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife recently issued an advisory Washington recommending that people temporarily discontinue bird feeding, or take extra steps to maintain feeders as a result of recent songbird deaths due to salmonella.  Read the DFW press release about it here. 

The Seattle P-I and Seattle Times articles can be found here and here.  DFW advises “stopping backyard bird feeding for at least a few weeks, if not for the remainder of the summer, to encourage birds to disperse and forage naturally.”

If you choose to keep feeders out, they recommend that you: 

• reduce the number of feeders you maintain,
• spread them out,
• use feeders that accommodate fewer birds (using tubes rather than platforms),
• clean feeders daily with a 1-to-10 solution of chlorine bleach and warm water, and
• keeping bird baths and fountains clean.

Reports of dead birds in Washington can be made to the Dead Bird Reports line, 1-800-606-8768.   Extra tips on helping reduce the risk of salmonella around your feeders can be found from the USGS National Wildlife Health Center here and here.

In a follow up interview by the Seattle P-I:

On whether you need to take down the feeder or just clean up DFW says: “You can help a whole lot by cleaning up, but in the face of an epidemic like we have going on, you have to clean every day, otherwise they’re probably hurting the birds more than they’re helping.”

The National Wildlife Health Center makes the following recommendations:

• To reduce the spread of the bacteria, clean feeders with a 10% bleach and water solution, rinse well and dry (Clean feeders in a bucket outside, rather than in the kitchen sink. ).
• Don’t put the feeders back up for one to two weeks, so that affected birds won’t be concentrated in one location.
• Rake up waste seeds/droppings below the feeders.
• Bird feeders with rough surfaces, cracks, or crevices are difficult to sanitize and should not be used.
• When using feeders, the location should be changed at regular intervals.
• Addition of more feeders may reduce crowding and minimize opportunity for interaction and contamination.
• Birdseed should be stored in rodent proof containers.

(Interesting the NWHC says add feeders to reduce concentration and WA DFW says reduce the number…).

Remember, for your own safety, wear rubber gloves when handling carcasses or droppings and wash hands afterwards in warm soapy water.

We’re still deciding how to respond here at the WSBirdcam.  Likely we’ll reduce and relocate the number of feeders we have to disburse our visitors more and be extra vigilant on the cleanliness front, including regularly disinfecting the areas near the feeders where the birds like to perch (and where waste or waste feed may accumulate).

While we’ve been reconfiguring the cam set up (still a work in progress), spring has hit full swing.  Lots of blooms to enjoy and a number of new visitors have been happening by in addition to our “regulars.”  Our rhododenrons are just about to burst and everything else seems like its full steam ahead.

I haven’t been able to get any good snaps of these guys yet, but I’m still hopeful.  Until I do, I can’t really call them “Visitors” in my book.  Nonetheless, we’ve been seeing an increase in diversity at the feeders so far this spring.

Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri).  A few visits to the hopper feeder and our ad hoc “pagoda” ground feeder when corn seems to be about.  From time to time, they’ll investigate the suet.  My hope is to get a relatively squirrel-free platform feeder established for a number of these type of birds.  As aggressive as Jays can be, these few have been quite mild mannered and skittish.  Still, their striking coloration immediately catches your eye when they’re in the yard.

American Robin (Turdus migratorius).  Apparently we are on the Robin’s watch list.  A few have been carefully watching the activity in our yard around the feeders from powerlines and the fences but have remained standoffish.  I’m trying to coax them nearer with fruit from time to time and might consider some worms.

White-Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys).  It appears our resident House Sparrows have decided to have their cousins visit for spring in Seattle.  Its only recently it seems we’ve been discovered by these striking little guys.  As the newcomers seem to be, pretty skittish, though they appear to be getting bolder as they become more comfortable in the yard.

European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris).  In the fall, the starlings seemed to descend more as a plague.  This spring, we’ve only been seeing a few at a time, mostly visiting the suet.

House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus).  Just last night we had a visit from this most striking little bird at the new pole mount feeder.  Seems he likes the sunflower seed mixture.  This little guy is only sparrow sized, but his distinctive red hood caught my eye right away.  I’m hoping we’ll see more of him and his friends soon.

We were out of town of late, so we had the birdcam down.  Also, our little setup took a bit of a hit when the velcro came unstuck from the window!  So, while we’re back, we’ll be making modifications to get things in a more stable configuration and you’ll likely see some random shots of the yard while we’re working on things.

Stay tuned!