By Christine A. Smyczynski
Ah summertime…..time to take it easy and perhaps hit the road for a week or so. But wait, what happens to your feathered friends when you are away? Who’s going to fill your feeder and clean the bird bath?
In an ideal world, you’ll have a friend, relative, or neighbor willing to step in and care for your backyard birds. But what happens if they are unwilling or unable to help out? Well actually, the birds will do just fine, as they are wild creatures and they know how to adapt.
Considering it is summer, their natural sources of food are plentiful, so they will not starve. Most people put out the feeders for the pleasure of watching the birds. If your bird feeder wasn’t there, the birds would still find enough food to eat. They will look elsewhere for food. Keep in mind that birds usually feed from several feeders in the neighborhood, so they will find enough to eat.
So, should you fill up your feeder when you leave or take it down? If it’s a nectar feeder, definitely take it down if no one is willing to care for it, as this type of feeder needs to be cleaned on a regular basis. If you have a seed feeder that a smaller bird could get trapped inside, you might also want to remove the feeder too, as you would not want to come home to a feeder with a dead bird inside.
When you return, put the feeders back out; the birds will return, especially at the end of the summer, when the natural supply of food, such as seeds and insects, starts dwindling.
If no one is going to take care of it, your bird bath should also be drained and put away, as you would not want it to become a bacteria-filled breeding ground for mosquitoes while you are away.