A question about bird feeders
I have been toying with this question for a long, long time. To feed the birds in winter or not. Yes, its a really nice thing to do for them leaving food out in plain sight where it is easily accessible and they don't have to expend all that energy looking for seed heads under all that snow. But in doing so I would be causeing a problem for nature because I am allowing more birds then an area can handle/feed to live there. If I were to put out bird seed I would have to continue to do so forever and ever so that this false carrying capasity for the area would not suddenly fall on the birds and so that the birds (if i should stop) wouldn't clean all the seeds from all the seed heads in the area and in the end there would be no more food and everyone would have to move to find food and many would probably die. I had someone tell me "don't you think they would prefer nice right off the plant seeds if they can get them though?" (or something like that) but really, if you are an animal i dont care what season it is, if you could get a free and easy meal wouldn't you take full and complete advantage of that? Whether there are some nice right off the plant seeds just over there or not, i would be all over that free and easy stuff even if it wasn't as good/tasty. I realize that once spring and summer come bird diets change to less seeds and more bugs and fruit when they can get it (I am generalizing here not every bird eats bugs, some eat seeds all year round) so that in the summer bird feeders really arent nessessary to keep up the false carrying capasity that I've created by putting out a bird feeder......or does it matter? I think it does. You help birds live during the winter so there are more individuals than would have been if you hadn't fed them then they eat more bug/fruit/what have you than they would have if you hadn't fed cause there are more birds. If you stop feeding then they rely completely on nature which means less food for everyone which would mean less babies in the spring. If you didn't feed them and just let them find what they could yes there would be fewer individuals and fewer babies in the spring....or would it be more cause there is more food available because the weaker birds died in the winter? Its all very tangled and yes nature can deal with a certain amount of stress before things start hitting the fan but you see my problem? Did i stop making sense somewhere...if I did let me know, when i really get going sometimes I fail to say something even though i thought it. I love animals just as much as the next person in the group, I even have some notions about duty to pets that most people would probably tell me I was crazy for but In doing what I think is my duty to nature I don't want to actually cause more problems than help. Questions....Comments.....ideas? An answer to my problem perhaps?
I am gonna put this up just because its pretty cool. Has nothing to do with birds but here it is anyway http://www.greendemolitions.com/ its a website where you can buy amazing expensive appliances, fixtures, decor and the like at a fraction of the cost because they have been used and donated to this site from people who are redoing part of thier house.
I found another cool place too http://www.simpleshoes.com/ The soles of the shoes are made from recycled tires! They are mad expensive unless its in the sale category, but its a cool idea.