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From: drintoul@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (David A Rintoul)
Subject: Re: Burning Birding Questions
Message-ID: <1991Jun3.212337.2512@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu>
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Date: Mon, 3 Jun 91 21:23:37 GMT
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The following is a monthly feature in our Audubon chapter
newsletter; its title is "Burning Birding Questions".  If
acceptable, I will try to post it every month for your
edification.  Some of the allusions may be local, but most 
items are of general interest.  If you have any Burning
Birding Questions of your own, please feel free to e-mail
them to me (drintoul@matt.ksu.ksu.edu) and I will try to
get them answered.  Good Birding.


1.  Since you claim to be both ancient and venerable, perhaps you
can answer this question from personal experience.  I have been
told that goldfinches, which are incredibly common at my feeder
presently, do not nest until later in the year, since they use
thistle down to line their nests.  I also understand that the
common thistle in the state was introduced from Asia in the 19th
century.  What did goldfinches do before they had thistle down? 
Did they have the same nesting schedule in pre-settlement days
as they do now?

Excellent question.  But first of all, I don't understand how it
can be that you consider the numbers of goldfinches at your
feeder to be incredible.  Are you suggesting that I should not
believe your observation?  Or that you don't believe your
observation?  If this is true, then bird watching must (with
apologies to Brace Beamer) "return . . . to the days of
yesteryear, when out of the past comes the sound of the . . ." 
shotgun as the only way to verify a bird observation!

But back to thistles.  To answer your question I had to turn to
someone more ancient and venerable than myself; I consulted Ted
Barkley (who many NFHAS members know as the benefactor
responsible for "The Barkley" awarded at the annual Christmas
Bird Count compilation), who is the editor of The Flora of the
Great Plains.  In this hefty tome, 11 thistles are listed, only
one of which has been introduced.  I also checked the plant list
for Konza Prairie to obtain a local perspective.  There are 4
thistles on that list, one of which is exotic.  So one can
probably assume that goldfinches and thistles  have coexisted at
least since the Pleistocene.  Goldfinches have never been without
thistle down, existing through time by adjusting the light-driven
timing of their reproductive cycle to match the phenology of the
thistle.  Now, that's a wonderment and does almost border on the
"incredible!"

I suspect, however, that you are thinking of the musk thistle,
which actually is in a different group.  There are two
"plumeless" thistles listed in The Flora, and both of them are
exotic.  Musk thistles invade habitats which have been severely
degraded by human activities; that the musk thistle is the
"common thistle in the state" and a problem is an indictment of
our maladaptive agricultural practices.

2.  How can I keep ants from emptying my hummingbird feeder every
day?  

Unless you are a respondent from east of Kansas City, I find it
"incredible" that you are actually feeding hummingbirds (except
in late summer and early fall when they indeed become more
frequent around Manhattan).  There are several solutions to your
problem:  1) my most preferred suggestion is to provide a reservoir
for your hummingbird feeder that contains more sugar solution
than the ants can consume in one day,  2) erect your hummingbird
feeder in the center of a bird bath and make sure that you keep
the moat full of water,  3) although less environmentally
preferred, erect your feeder in a basin containing a solution of
insecticide,  4) if it's a hanging feeder, you might suspend it
from one of those electrical gadgets that fries insects when they
touch it.

As most of my faithful readers know, my own solution would be to
just refill the feeder; ants are as much a part of nature as
hummingbirds.
