Keep feeding seagulls – and you could now be fined

News | Published: Mar 14, 2018

ISLANDERS could be fined for continually feeding seagulls and other ‘nuisance’ wild creatures after new laws came into effect recently.

The consistent giving of food to ‘wild animals, birds, insects, reptiles or fish’ has become a potential criminal offence after the Environment Department received sustained complaints about the behaviour of seagulls and decided to take action.

The birds have been blamed for causing noise, damaging property, creating mess with their faeces, spreading disease and stealing food, as well as annoying humans. The feeding of gulls is also believed to be attracting rodents to problem areas.

Jersey’s public nuisance laws were updated this week after a proposition lodged by Environment Minister Steve Luce was approved by the States last September.

Deputy Luce said that his department would continue to give advice to Islanders to not feed gulls in problem areas but stricter enforcement could now be used, if necessary. If an Islander refuses to stop feeding the animal, a notice would be served. If the notice is breached, a file would be sent to the Attorney General.

‘We continue to try through education to encourage people not to feed seagulls,’ he said. ‘But what this will do is give us the power to take action and, if necessary, impose a fine if they ignore the advice which we give them.

‘When seagulls are fed they get used to being around us and that is when they start going into places like al-fresco areas of restaurants.

‘When we were having the debate a lot of people contacted me to say that in areas of terraced housing and back alleys people can be feeding seagulls and it causes problems.

‘They can pester people if they are having barbecues, picnics or just eating in their back garden.’

The minister added that it was hoped that the nuisance caused by a number of other creatures could be tackled with the new legislation.

‘The other thing when food is left out for seagulls is that it can attract vermin, so there are all sorts of good reasons for this law,’ he said. ‘The one thing I want to say is that I don’t want people to be discouraged from the good work they do feeding wild birds throughout the winter.

Read more at 

Feeding wildlife can influence migration, spread of disease

Date:  March 13, 2018

Source:  University of Georgia

Animal migration patterns are changing as humans alter the landscape, according to new research from the University of Georgia. Those changes can affect wildlife interactions with parasites-with potential impacts on public health and on the phenomenon of migration itself.

In a paper published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Leone Brown, a recent postdoctoral researcher at the Odum School of Ecology, and Richard Hall, a faculty member in the Odum School and the College of Veterinary Medicine's Department of Infectious Diseases, used mathematical models to explore the impacts of wildlife feeding on migration and disease.

"One familiar example for that would be American robins, where widespread ornamental plantings of berry-bearing bushes in city parks and backyards means there's food for them in the winter, so an increasing fraction of them is staying north," said Hall. "That's a species that we know is an important host for maintaining West Nile virus in places such as New York City."

People provide food to wildlife both unintentionally-think of raccoons rummaging in trash cans-or purposely, as with bird feeders or butterfly gardens. Either way, access to new food resources, especially if they're available all year long, can cause some migratory animals to stay put.

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Deal struck after bird lover fined £100 for feeding swans at Coventry park

Michael Rennie was told he was "depositing litter" by feeding the birds

Ben Eccleston

16:00, 17 FEB 2017

A compromise has been struck between a pensioner and council chiefs after he was fined £100 for feeding swans.

Police were called after Michael Rennie was handed two penalty notices for feeding the birds at Quinton Park, in Cheylesmore.

He was told his actions constituted “depositing litter” and was handed two £50 fines.

Mr Rennie originally refused to give his details to the Coventry City Council employee after he asked her for some ID, which was also refused, and police were called.

Officers eventually arrived but West Midlands Police confirmed that no action was taken.

The 63-year-old retired cleaner and driver said he had no intentions to pay the money, but has come to an agreement that he will pay one of the fines, and in return the council will drop the other penalty.

Mr Rennie had took it upon himself to feed the swans after they had started wandering across a busy road searching for food.

On the advice of the RSPB, he began giving them grain and lettuce.

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Ducks prefer to be fed 'trendy' kale, charity claims

Canal and River Trust, which wants people to feed ducks healthy leaves instead of bread, reports that ducks prefer kale to 'pedestrian' iceberg lettuce

By Emily Gosden

8:30AM GMT 26 Mar 2016

Its hipster appeal has seen it appear on menus around Britain in recent years.

But now, kale has emerged as the healthy leaf of choice not just for people - but for ducks.

The Canal and River Trust, which is campaigning for people to feed ducks with lettuce leaves rather than ‘junk food’ bread, said it had carried out aLettuce Taste Test to find out whether the birds “favoured one type of leaf over another”.

Kale – which was included as a “wildcard” despite actually being a cabbage – proved to be “the biggest hit”, according to the results of the rudimentary testing carried out by the charity on Aylesbury’s Grand Union Canal.

The vegetable, which the trust noted was “currently gracing the table of many trendy restaurants” was given a “duck approval rating” of 10/10 by the trust’s testers after they observed that “ducks couldn’t get enough” of it.

It proved far more popular than the humble iceberg lettuce, which scored just 6/10 after testing found the ducks “had a nibble but didn’t go back for seconds”.

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ASBO handed to woman, 70, for feeding seagulls

By North Devon Journal | Posted: August 24, 2015

Rose Rodell

A COUNCIL in Devon has taken the unusual step of slapping an ASBO on a pensioner for feeding bread to seagulls.

The 70-year-old has been banned from feeding seagulls and all other birds in her home town but the local council banned her after complaints from some residents.

East Devon lady Rose Rodell has fed various birds at her local park and cemetery for years and has launched a legal bid to get the order overturned in court.

But now she has even been threatened with eviction from her council home if she continues feeding the gulls, pigeons and doves.

Rose believes that concerns raised from big hoteliers in Sidmouth town about the "flying rats" are behind her "victimisation" from the council.

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Worsening wind forecasts signal stormy times ahead for seabirds

Date: August 18, 2015

Source: University of Edinburgh

Summary: Stronger winds forecast as a result of climate change could impact on populations of wild animals, by affecting how well they can feed, a study of seabirds suggests.

Research into a common UK coastal seabird showed that when winds are strong, females take much longer to find food compared with their male counterparts.

Researchers expect that if wind conditions worsen -- as they are forecast to do -- this could impact on the wellbeing of female birds, and ultimately affect population sizes.

In many seabird species, females are smaller and lighter than males, and so must work harder to dive through turbulent water. They may not hold their breath for as long, fly so efficiently nor dive as deeply as males. The latest results suggest that in poor weather conditions, this sex difference is exaggerated.

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Feed ducks frozen peas instead of stale bread, charity asks

People in England and Wales feed ducks an estimated of six million loaves of bread a year

ROISIN O'CONNOR

Monday 16 March 2015

It may be a favourite family pastime, but apparently going to your local park to throw stale bread at ducks is completely wrong.

The Canal and River Trust is launching a campaign this week which urges people to feed ducks with frozen peas and sweetcorn instead. Ducks are also reportedly partial to grapes, which should be cut into quarters to make them easier to eat.

People in England and Wales feed an estimated of six million loaves of bread a year to ducks, which can cause damage to birds’ health and pollute waterways.

Ducklings that are fed on bread end up being malnourished, while birds that get used to hand-outs can lose their natural fear of humans and may become “aggressive”.

The charity warns families that bread is essentially “junk food” for ducks, and the remnants left behind encourage rats, disease and algae. Oats, barley, rice and vegetable trimmings are also acceptable replacements for leftover crusts, it advises.

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Later supper for blackbirds in the city: Artificial light gives birds longer to forage for food

Date:

October 20, 2014

Source:

Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research - UFZ

Summary:

Artificial light increases foraging time in blackbirds. Birds in city centers are active not just considerably earlier, but also for longer than their relatives in darker parts of the city. The study showed that artificial light has a considerable influence on the activity times of blackbirds in the city and therefore on their natural cycles.

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'Early birds' find worms for dinner

Birds, such as great and blue tits, search for food in the morning but only return to eat it in late afternoon, scientists have found.

The team believe the behaviour maximises their chances of avoiding predators during the day without starving to death overnight.

Researchers from the University of Oxford tracked the birds' winter foraging movements using tiny tags.

All five of the studied species of songbirds behaved in the same way.

The results are published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

"Our results are important because they provide a new hypothesis for how animals forage," said Damien Farine, lead author from the University of Oxford.

"They suggest that animals integrate the different risks they face into one strategy that can be applied to satisfy both their need to avoid predation and avoid risk."

Scientists have been studying bird populations at Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, UK since 1947.

Finding food becomes more and more relevant towards the end of the winter when large sources of food, such as beech mast, have become depleted.

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‘Feed the birds’ plea as natural feed sources dwindle for the winter

Many garden birds need feeding, especially after such bad weather. Even magpies.

BSA issues plea for kind people everywhere to help garden birds through the winter

November 2012. The Birdcare Standards Association - the only UK organisation to provide standards for the quality of birdfeed and accessories sold in the UK - has issued a plea to garden bird lovers across the country to feed the birds this winter - starting now.

Atrocious wet weather
Most garden birds supplement the majority of their naturally occurring feed stuffs with the seed mixes and fatballs and other products put out in gardens by kind homeowners across the UK - but this year they will be even more reliant on the scraps and the quality birdfeed put out for them due to the atrocious and wet weather we've experienced this year.

"The very wet weather particularly in the spring has caused major problems for many garden birds naturally occurring food and many bushes that carry berries that birds eat in the very cold weather have already been stripped before the end of November, highlighting the difficult situation they will experience when the really cold weather comes along," says Birdcare Standards Association CEO Steve Paddock. "Sadly we lose a lot of garden birds during the winter anyway and if we are not to see that number getting even higher over the next few weeks, we need to offer them help in the form of some good quality, nutritious feed products that they can get hold of easily in our gardens. We recommend using products that carry the BSA logo because they meet our standards for quality and we know that the birds will benefit from the feed they eat."

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/bird-feed.html

Baby wrens must chirp a secret password to be fed, study finds

The nestlings of fairy-wrens don’t have much of a choice when it comes to listening to their mothers: The birds must reproduce a particular sound learned from their moms to be fed, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

The researchers, led by Sonia Kleindorfer of Flinders University in Australia, call the sound the bird’s “learned password.”

The team discovered the remarkable mother-chick ritual by chance when they noticed that the mothers were aiming calls at their eggs well before they hatched. So they set out to determine why. First, the researchers realized that the call made by the nestlings in order to be fed was different in each nest, suggesting it might be learned.

The pieces began to come together when the team also observed that each nest’s begging call — the password the nestlings need — was contained within the call that the mothers made to their unhatched eggs. In order to prove that the chicks were learning the sound from their moms rather than the song being innate, Kleindorfer and her team swapped the eggs from two different nests. Once hatched, the chicks produced the begging call of their foster moms, not their birth moms, proof the call was in fact learned in the egg.

Continued:  http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-baby-wrens-must-chirp-secret-password-to-be-fed-20121108,0,4228548.story?track=rss