Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 16:42:19 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Kurt. R. Schwarz" Subject: Re: Salt Lick for Sparrows? MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT When my mother in Pennsylvania maintained a salt lick for the deer, it was routinely patronized by House Finch. I can't recall other species using it, but it certainly DID attract birds. Kurt Schwarz Howard County goawaybird@comcast.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Janet Millenson" To: Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 4:05 PM Subject: [MDOSPREY] Salt Lick for Sparrows? > On a residential street in Bethesda, I just saw (from a distance, no binocs) > half a dozen House Sparrows clinging to a vertical brick wall and apparently > busily obtaining something from its surface. It reminded me of watching > squirrels lick at an exposed masonry foundation to get the salts that have > leached out. Does that seem a likely explanation here? I couldn't find any > mention of such behavior in the BoNA life history for these birds. > (Attention Rick Sussman: Apparently House Sparrows "can swim when pressed to > do so"! Maybe when an American Bittern is after them?) It seems kind of late > in the season for the bricks to have been covered with insects or spiders. > > Janet Millenson > Potomac, MD (Montgomery County) > janet@twocrows.com > ------------------------------------------------------------------ > "Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= > ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================