Date: 6/19/26 6:21 pm From: Tom Benedict via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Anna's Hummingbird
Thanks for the link Nancy. I guess I’ll take down the lint cage.
On a related note, I must admit that the longer I live the less I enjoy birdwatching. There was a time, not long ago, that I carried binoculars with me on every trip. In my youth, 60+ years ago my father and I birded with Hazel Wolf and Zella Schultz. Heck, I was even a Merit Badge counselor for the Boy Scout Bird Study merit badge when my sons were scouts. But the past 4-5 years it seems different. Maybe it’s that the hobby has grown so much and seemingly everyone is doing it now. Maybe it’s cognitive decline, but I seem less and less capable of identifying birds anymore. Sparrows, Finches and Juncos all look alike and I don’t even try with gulls anymore. I’ve stopped putting out bird seed in the feeders because of rats and squirrels. Stopped suet too for similar reason. Plus baiting is really not ethical. Or maybe I’m just losing interest in being interested things. Now I find out that the dryer lint I’ve been putting out for the past 60 years is likely harmful.
The times they are achangin’..
Tom Benedict
Seahurst, WA
> On Jun 16, 2026, at 22:36, Nancy Crowell <nkcrowell...> wrote:
>
> Hi Tom,
> My understanding is that dryer lint is not recommended for bird nesting material and is potentially harmful. I am including a link to a helpful article about appropriate nesting materials from Cornell: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/providing-nest-material-for-birds-dos-donts/ >
> Nancy
> La Conner
>
> Nancy
> "Images for the imagination."
> www.crowellphotography.com
> From: Tweeters <tweeters-bounces...> on behalf of Tom Benedict via Tweeters <tweeters...>
> Sent: Tuesday, 16 June 2026 20:54:14
> To: Tom and Carol Stoner <tcstonefam...>; <Tweeters...> <Tweeters...>
> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Anna's Hummingbird
>
> We hang dryer lint in a wire cage and I’ve seen Anna’s plucking link twice in the past week. I would have thought that nesting season was over by now, but maybe not?
>
> Tom Benedict
> Seahurst, WA
>
> > On Jun 16, 2026, at 20:14, Tom and Carol Stoner via Tweeters <tweeters...> wrote:
> >
> > This morning I spotted a female Anna's collecting the fluffy white stuff that carries the seeds of plants in the aster family. She had quite a mouth full.
> >
> > Carol Stoner
> > West Seattle
>
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