As many of you are aware, the California Department of Fish and Game is encouraging Northern California residents of pine and conifer wooded areas where Pine Siskins are being seen to stop bird feeding for a month to slow an outbreak of Salmonellosis (a bacterial disease). There have been reports of sick birds north of Grass Valley and wooded areas around Santa Cruz. Here in the valley a number of people have asked whether they should continue feeding or not. It’s hard to say for sure. Some are of the opinion that if you clean and sanitize your feeders often, then it should be OK. (Editor’s Note - I live in California Park and found a dead siskin at my tray feeder, so I’ve stopped feeding as DFG recommends).

The Enterprise-Record had a good article on the subject on February 17. You can find it on their web site by searching for “bird feed” (you may need to use Advanced Search as the default date range is the previous two weeks).