Good question. Bonnie. Several quick-fingered shutter-bugs have captured the errant sandpiper pulling round worms from the watery gravel where it has been feeding actively, much as robins pull earthworms from the soil.
So the Purple Sandpiper DOES have a food supply (although maybe be not seafood), and it has thrived for at least a week, feeding in the warm effluent waters of Iron Springs, where it debauches into Dillon Reservoir. Who knows, the bird could have been there for weeks? If this were fall migration season, one could expect it to move on, responding to the urge to travel. But the bird may sense that it has reached a good spot to spend the winter, so I would not mess with it. It may be difficult to see harm in supplementing the bird's food supply with mealworms, but there are possible consequences one cannot foresee. And at the very least, laying out a smorgasbord of mealworms could just happen a few hours or a day or two before it decided to leave it's happy microhabitat. And if that happened, whoever tossed the vermiform banquet could be blamed, even if blameless. My 4 cents (inflation) Joe Roller, Denver On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 5:28 PM, ednbonniebaker <[email protected]> wrote: > Joe > > I've got a question for you re: the survival of the Purple Sandpiper with > no apparent food to maintain its strength and ability to move-on eventually > > I've just gotta ask the question . . . > > why can't we feed it mealworms or whatever it takes to keep him on this > earth. > > I don't see the harm in it; this is a very rare situation; all i can see > is good from doing so. > > Admittedly it's what I did for the Eastern Bluebird that came for a visit > on my Bluebird Trail in Summit County. It filled-up on mealworms during > our April 2016 snowstorms; then after a week, moved on. > > Bonnie Boex > Dillon, Summit County, Colorado > > On Thursday, December 22, 2016 at 6:01:53 PM UTC-7, Joe Roller wrote: >> >> Lost and Found Department. >> >> Found: 1 winter glove. >> >> Please contact me, and I will return this to you. >> >> Joe Roller, Denver >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> [image: Inline image 1] >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Colorado Birds" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > msgid/cobirds/64a13000-2b4d-4225-a9dd-4db8089589c9%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/64a13000-2b4d-4225-a9dd-4db8089589c9%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAJpZcUBoc1ZC_V%3DTH-1k%3D87YnajS0jb%3DJ3PxuFnUem9qvvVhrQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
