{"id":8842,"date":"2013-09-23T09:01:15","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T16:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=8842"},"modified":"2013-09-23T09:08:50","modified_gmt":"2013-09-23T16:08:50","slug":"unfriendly-pilings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=8842","title":{"rendered":"Unfriendly pilings"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Birds like wooden pilings.<\/p>\n

Pilings are the heavy beams driven vertically into the lake bottom to anchor docks (among other things). Traditionally, a log was used for a piling; it provided birds with a natural offshore perch safe from land predators.<\/p>\n

Many birds took advantage of such pilings: ducks, geese, raptors, woodpeckers, swallows, corvids, herons, kingfishers, gulls…. Not only do birds appreciate the refuge, but observers delight in the unobstructed view of them. Indeed, some of my best pictures have been taken of birds on or adjacent to pilings.<\/p>\n

Alas, over less than a decade, the technology of pilings has become unfriendly for birds. Pilings have become metal—impervious to a bird’s clinging talons and probing bills—and they are now topped with conical plastic caps. Initially, such caps served as a moisture barrier for the wooden pilings, or as one site notes, they provide an “inexpensive way to protect costly pilings from internal rot.” But, the caps are now added to metal pilings to help “discourage birds from landing” (dockbuilders.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Piling caps certainly do discourage birds. Since these new pilings have appeared along our lakeside, I have only seen one species capable of clinging to its smooth conical top: a kingfisher.<\/p>\n

One of the great delights of lakeside living has been diminished by conical piling caps.<\/p>\n

I offer two pictures taken Sunday.<\/p>\n

An osprey alighted on a traditional wooden piling and then feasted on a fish. The osprey is one of a wide variety of birds that I have watched taking advantage of the safety and structure of traditional wooden pilings.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

No bird can latch onto the side of the new metal pilings and I have only seen one species capable of perching atop the cone: a kingfisher. Kingfishers are fun to watch, but this palette could have had sported many more colours.
\n\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Birds like wooden pilings. Pilings are the heavy beams driven vertically into the lake bottom to anchor docks (among other things). Traditionally, a log was used for a piling; it provided birds with a natural offshore perch safe from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8842"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8853,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8842\/revisions\/8853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}