BIRDS: Where did they go?

A reader from Derrick City reached out to ask if anyone else has noticed a lack of wildlife at their outdoor feeders.

“If it shows up, I feed it,” she said. Lately, not much has been showing up. “I haven’t seen one junco. I have two chickadees left.

“I have two chipmunks. I had like eight before,” she said.

“I know the hummingbirds fly south,” she said, but it’s early for that. Still, they’ve been absent lately. 

“The rabbits, I see two of them, I used to have eight,” she said. “It’s disconcerting. It’s like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. I wonder if it has something to do with the drought.”

McKean County is in moderate drought conditions.

We turned to the internet to see what it might tell us. Google says that drought conditions can cause a scarcity of food, which may cause birds to fly elsewhere for sustenance. 

We’re betting critters will be back. It seems like they can always find a feeding spot.

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FREEDOM: Some quotes from the Freedom Forum to remind us of the principles on which America was founded.

“The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is beside the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.” ― Anthony Kennedy, United States Supreme Court.

“To me there is nothing more important in a democracy than free speech and debate. We should debate everything, we should talk about everything, we should engage ideas we aren’t comfortable with, and we should let the best ideas win, that’s how a healthy society based on rational ideas and a secular government should work.” ― Dave Rubin, political commentator.