Starlings down with aid from blackbirds

[puddleglum]

Anchored a starling in the yard today, out the upstairs window about 25 yards away. There must have been 25 out there and the flock flew away and then started coming back. At that time a flock of red wing black birds came and landed in the trees. This made the starlings wary to land, but wanted to land by the first one I shot. They weren’t paying attention to the guy upstairs in the window due to the blackbirds and I picked off a few more. I could have blasted another five, likely, but I had to go reload and air up.

 

[Ranchibi]

Excellent shooting with your Vet and great pic! Starlings are so skittish!

 

[puddleglum]

Excellent shooting with your Vet and great pic! Starlings are so skittish!

I was amazed they kept coming back and landing in the trees and getting picked off. I think the redwing blackbirds harassing them must have confused them. Perhaps they were trying to defend territory? Maybe they were in the midst of the birds portion of the “birds and the bees”?

 

[Ranchibi]

I was amazed they kept coming back and landing in the trees and getting picked off. I think the redwing blackbirds harassing them must have confused them. Perhaps they were trying to defend territory? Maybe they were in the midst of the birds portion of the “birds and the bees”?

Could be! Maybe they thought the redwings were the culprits....

 

[puddleglum]

Three more this morning, they are landing in a cotton wood outside my window, 35 yards away, at between a 40 and 50 degree incline. Wind is a rare 2-3mph so they are easy pickings, resting on the window sash. The blackbirds are also in the tree, raising a ruckus when I come out to check for bodies. I also got too close to the tree swallow box so they were dive bombing me, even though I am clearing out the riff raff in their neighborhood. That’s gratitude for ya…

 

[puddleglum]

And one more today. This one was the first successful use of my new LRF. It indicated 61 yards. Chairgun said hold over .8 MIL. Thwack. Starling down.

Getting to the edge of range for this setup, with the 2-7x on the Taipan short, but it did the job.