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Index of Subjects James Hirtle wrote: > Hi all: > > I recieved this recently and was wondering if anyone has any knowledge > on this issue. If indeed there is any truth to the following, I > myself would find it somewhat disturbing. I would like to send an > answer to the individual, but I have no first hand knowledge in > regards to the topic. > > James R. Hirtle > Dublin Shore > > I am writing about sunflower seeds which I feed birds at my property on > Hidden Lake in the Labelle/Chelsea area. > > In October my wife and I took a trip across Canada by train. On the > outskirts of Winnipeg we saw large fields packed with sunflower plants > that > were brown and withered looking. I felt this to be somewhat odd > considering > that the weather was still quite summer like and that I had seen > sunflower > plants in Maniban gardens that still seemed robustly upright and > appealing > to the sun. > > Whe I arrived at my older son's place in Kelowna BC I happened to ask him > whether he knew about the sunflower crops around Winnipeg. He had spent > some time in Winnipeg and his girlfriend comes from a town out side of > that > city. My son said that he was told that the sunflower plants are sprayed > with Round Up to facilitate the harvesting of the plants and the > gathering > of their seeds. > > In January of this year I purchased an 18 kg bag of sunflower seeds at > Costco in Halifax. On the bag was printed the name of the company, > Keystone > Grain Limited (they have a website) that distribute the seed and I > noticed > it was in Winnipeg. I looked on the bag for more infornmation and was > surprised to see no mention that the seed wasn't for human > consumption. So > I wrote them an e-mail to find out if the seed was fit for humans. I have > had no reply. > > I was wondering whether you, because of your area of expertise, would > have > any knowledge if in fact this is a method used to harvest the seed and > whether use of such seed - possibly corrupted or contaminated with a > herbicide - would be detrimental to birds. > > I read and hear of the decimation and reduction in the counts of some > types > of birds. Could this be a factor to consider or at least make notice of? > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This may or may not be relevant to the above, but this past winter I have noted a very dramatic reduction in black oil sunflower seed consumption compared with all previous 20++ years of bird feeding (seeds for which I get locally here in Tantallon). The local supplier told me at the beginning of this season that he had changed suppliers so I have just contacted him after reading the above to ask where he is now getting the seeds from; he tells me they come from a distributing company, Armstrong, in Ontario, but that at least some of the seeds, if not all, may well come from further west. He tells me he is not hearing from other customers about any change in feeding patterns - but he also hasn't asked - and I am left with an even greater concern than I already had about the low consumption I am noting. Just for interest I am going to try and get some seeds that originate from a different source to see if that makes any difference. I'll keep you posted.......... Eleanor Lindsay
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