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Oh, no! Now I AM starting to panic! Not sure what to do. Has anyone heard anything from any of the bird groups like Audubon or Cornell about this? What are the rest of you folks going to do? Take down your feeders and stop your water fountains? We don’t have a birdbath with standing water which does sound like a breeding ground for salmonella but we do have a fountain and the birds love it and have come to depend on it so we hate to turn it off. The water runs continuously and it’s recirculating constantly. We could wash it off every evening with the power washer after the birds leave for the day to be sure no fecal matter lingers. The finch do not ever use the water in the bottom basin.

We already took our tray feeder down and as I said, we change out our sock feeders very often and will do it even more often now. Plus we do wash out our tube feeders periodically with hot soapy water and let them air dry thoroughly while alternating a second set. But now we will use the bleach solution recommended by that article.

I am very reluctant to start throwing seed haphazardly out for them as that is where the salmonella seems to be breeding- on the ground. The article said to be sure to clean up all the seed several times a day so throwing it down haphazardly would make that a lot harder....

I would really appreciate a few more of you more knowledgeable and experienced birders commenting on what you are planning to do and please, if you’ve heard anything else from any other bird-protection organization, please let us know!

Worried and stressed in the Pocket Area,

Di