Clff, all my Purple Martin's would be so happy to not have to fight off the starling bullies to nest and feed their young in peace. Thats when I step in with my 50 ft lbs of muzzle energy from the 33gr jsb's and Bobcat to sling them.
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Moral dilemma with Starlings
- Thread starter Cliff_Allen
- Start date
no pictures but the .22 independents barked 3 times from the kitchen today lol 3 targets of opportunity down lol!
Jonathan
Jonathan
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I didn't used to go out of my way to shoot starlings until this year. I watched two starlings bully a red breasted woodpecker out of nests it made, TWICE! Then my neighbor told me that he'd seen more "small, dark colored birds" chasing the woodpeckers out of a nest they'd made in his yard. That was enough for me! I've been smashing those little jerks whenever I have the time. I hung two baskets with suet in them right outside my kitchen window, and have been killing them as humanely as possible. Nobody hits 100%, and one occasionally limps away before I can get a follow-up (I'm using lower powered pumpers in .177, and keeping the velocity in the 500 FPS for noise control and safety). When that happens I feel terrible, but console myself in the knowledge that a raccoon or local cat will likely get it before too long. Knowing that they are an invasive and aggressive species helps to dull the regret of killing them while not putting them to use, it really does. And since I've been shooting them I've seen different song bird dreads that I have never seen here before.
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I kill them for the wife of course lol she loves all the other birds. I would leave the dead ones hanging around a while the other ones will see the dead and stop coming for a while. at least that's what they do here if I want to kill more of them soon I pick up the dead. good luck and don't feel bad you will be a bird hero.
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Starlings are the single solitary reason I got back into airgun hunting.
I grew up on a farm, out in the country and naturally I hunted. My father had guns so I learned how to shoot from an early age. By the time I was ten I was pretty nasty with the old single-shot lever Daisy BB gun that shot 3 inch groups at 5 feet. Still, I will never forget the first bird I shot and killed with that first BB gun. I was 7 or 8 and I picked that bird up and it died in my hands and I cried. I remember my Daddy was standing right beside me and told me that taking an animals life was a big deal and I should only kill what I planned to eat.
Definitely gave me a little lesson about life and death and made me think twice and was more conscious about what I killed.
Having said that let me tell you why I got back into airgunning... I told this story in another thread but not with these details...it's a testimony from personal experience as I witnessed these terrible "Cockaroaches with feathers" actions first hand.
There was a huge maple tree in the backyard of a house I rented in an old subdivision right outside of Nashville TN. This maple tree had to be hundreds of years old and had lots of broken open branches with cavities and open holes in the tree. A pair of mated screech owls came in and nested in the end of one of the open broken branches that stuck out over where I parked. Ended up with 2 cute little babies that would come out to the edge of the opening in the day and sit side by side waiting on the parents to come back in the evening from wherever they were during the day.
Screech owls are very rarely seen if ever. They're shy, usually nest in wooded areas, pretty much don't like to be around people in any way. These little guys got so used to me they would hunt at my feet at night and land just feet away from me on the fence or tree limbs near where I would be watching. They would make these shrill whistle noises and then dive down into the yard and stamp their feet in the grass. In the morning I would take a stick and poke around in their tiny little owl pellets that fell off of my truck under their nest and learned that all they were hunting was 1/4" long black beetles. Very interesting to observe and I was learning so much about these cool little owls. This brings me to why I grew to really love these guys and develop a pure unadulterated hatred for the evil disgusting starling.
My mother had been killed in a car wreck by drunk driver a few months before and I was really struggling. The more I learned about how shy they were and unnatural this whole thing was...maybe I was just looking for a sign...but I started thinking that maybe my mama was one of those owls. That the reason the female felt so comfortable and would sit at my feet and stare at me and shrill whistle, had something to do with my mama.
Within two weeks of the babies being born, the starlings showed up one morning. I got up like I usually did and went out the back door to smoke a cigarette and heard the most god-awful crackling squeaky chirping going on on the other side of the tree above where I parked. Walked back there and looked up and 2 Starlings were attacking the last baby owl. Before I could even think about what I should do the baby came crashing down on top of the hood of my truck and slammed into the concrete below. When I looked down there was the other one dying. The mother owl was dead on the ground and later that day I found the male against the backyard fence with a broken wing and bleeding from the neck.
When I looked up and saw how happy those two starlings were at what they had done and how they were acting twirling their wings and circles and excited chatter, a scowl drew across my face and a dark shadow fell across the very core of who I am as a man. I specifically remember feeling that same feeling towards the man who killed my mother in that car wreck.
Needless to say, the rest is history. I went to Walmart that day and bought three different of their highest-end air rifles with plans to try them all and keep the best one and take the other two back. Took about an hour to sight it in.
First one I shot was the female... right under the throat up through the top of her head...feet seized up and she hung upside down bleeding all over truck, til I put another one in her to knock her down. Proceeded to fill up a Kroger bag slam full the first day. Took a week but the male lured me in two more females. After a good solid year of laying down the law on their a#&$… I thinned them out of the neighborhood pretty good. Probably killed 500. I had no issues with it then just like I have no issues with it this morning when I took three in seven seconds sitting in my mulberry tree with my Colibri .22...an actual first ever for me btw. Son of a guns are usually real smart but these ones were so enthralled they didn't seem to notice their buddies dropping like flies.
Moral of the story is... kill every single Starling you can get in your crosshairs. Have no qualms, you're doing the world a favor.
I grew up on a farm, out in the country and naturally I hunted. My father had guns so I learned how to shoot from an early age. By the time I was ten I was pretty nasty with the old single-shot lever Daisy BB gun that shot 3 inch groups at 5 feet. Still, I will never forget the first bird I shot and killed with that first BB gun. I was 7 or 8 and I picked that bird up and it died in my hands and I cried. I remember my Daddy was standing right beside me and told me that taking an animals life was a big deal and I should only kill what I planned to eat.
Definitely gave me a little lesson about life and death and made me think twice and was more conscious about what I killed.
Having said that let me tell you why I got back into airgunning... I told this story in another thread but not with these details...it's a testimony from personal experience as I witnessed these terrible "Cockaroaches with feathers" actions first hand.
There was a huge maple tree in the backyard of a house I rented in an old subdivision right outside of Nashville TN. This maple tree had to be hundreds of years old and had lots of broken open branches with cavities and open holes in the tree. A pair of mated screech owls came in and nested in the end of one of the open broken branches that stuck out over where I parked. Ended up with 2 cute little babies that would come out to the edge of the opening in the day and sit side by side waiting on the parents to come back in the evening from wherever they were during the day.
Screech owls are very rarely seen if ever. They're shy, usually nest in wooded areas, pretty much don't like to be around people in any way. These little guys got so used to me they would hunt at my feet at night and land just feet away from me on the fence or tree limbs near where I would be watching. They would make these shrill whistle noises and then dive down into the yard and stamp their feet in the grass. In the morning I would take a stick and poke around in their tiny little owl pellets that fell off of my truck under their nest and learned that all they were hunting was 1/4" long black beetles. Very interesting to observe and I was learning so much about these cool little owls. This brings me to why I grew to really love these guys and develop a pure unadulterated hatred for the evil disgusting starling.
My mother had been killed in a car wreck by drunk driver a few months before and I was really struggling. The more I learned about how shy they were and unnatural this whole thing was...maybe I was just looking for a sign...but I started thinking that maybe my mama was one of those owls. That the reason the female felt so comfortable and would sit at my feet and stare at me and shrill whistle, had something to do with my mama.
Within two weeks of the babies being born, the starlings showed up one morning. I got up like I usually did and went out the back door to smoke a cigarette and heard the most god-awful crackling squeaky chirping going on on the other side of the tree above where I parked. Walked back there and looked up and 2 Starlings were attacking the last baby owl. Before I could even think about what I should do the baby came crashing down on top of the hood of my truck and slammed into the concrete below. When I looked down there was the other one dying. The mother owl was dead on the ground and later that day I found the male against the backyard fence with a broken wing and bleeding from the neck.
When I looked up and saw how happy those two starlings were at what they had done and how they were acting twirling their wings and circles and excited chatter, a scowl drew across my face and a dark shadow fell across the very core of who I am as a man. I specifically remember feeling that same feeling towards the man who killed my mother in that car wreck.
Needless to say, the rest is history. I went to Walmart that day and bought three different of their highest-end air rifles with plans to try them all and keep the best one and take the other two back. Took about an hour to sight it in.
First one I shot was the female... right under the throat up through the top of her head...feet seized up and she hung upside down bleeding all over truck, til I put another one in her to knock her down. Proceeded to fill up a Kroger bag slam full the first day. Took a week but the male lured me in two more females. After a good solid year of laying down the law on their a#&$… I thinned them out of the neighborhood pretty good. Probably killed 500. I had no issues with it then just like I have no issues with it this morning when I took three in seven seconds sitting in my mulberry tree with my Colibri .22...an actual first ever for me btw. Son of a guns are usually real smart but these ones were so enthralled they didn't seem to notice their buddies dropping like flies.
Moral of the story is... kill every single Starling you can get in your crosshairs. Have no qualms, you're doing the world a favor.
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That is the ONE bird I will shoot on sight if I get a chance. They are a non-native species that kill song birds and will go after birds of pry young at nesting time ---- I have heard reports of young owls being attacked and even killed (as the poster above posted), and I have seen them go after song birds !
These are IMHO, the one animal I can go after and feel NO remorse because I did not use them for food or ?
wll2506
These are IMHO, the one animal I can go after and feel NO remorse because I did not use them for food or ?
wll2506
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They like to run all the song birds of of the feeder.. I set at the dining table and watch them......finches, blue jays, cardinals, even wood peckers. After the have run the other bird off they feed. I go to the upstairs bedroom. crack open a window and shoot. Sometimes I can get 2 before the other fly off. 32 kills so far this year.
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Killing is a funny thing. The older I get the less of it I want to do. Probably has something to do with increasing awareness of my own mortality. BUT ... pests are another story. They need killin. I need the trigger time. %^)
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Think of it this way Sir...the more you 'take out' [of the food chain], the higher quality life (less competition) for the other birds. You are just removing the weaker birds. They were too old, sick and slow to move out of the pellet's path.
It bothered you enough to ask and everyone has their own spin on it. You're obviously not a mean kid shooting arrows at cats or geese. None of us are. You have the means to end an annoying feathered dingleberry in a manner so much faster than it would die othersise in a hawk's clutches or by disease. But the reality is, as all hunting goes, when overpopulated the less there are, the better. If there are that many, time to thin the herd. You won't turn into some trigger happy evil version of yourself. If anything you will become the best marksman you ever thought, being extra careful of all aspects of the shot.
Man I'm good at this.
It bothered you enough to ask and everyone has their own spin on it. You're obviously not a mean kid shooting arrows at cats or geese. None of us are. You have the means to end an annoying feathered dingleberry in a manner so much faster than it would die othersise in a hawk's clutches or by disease. But the reality is, as all hunting goes, when overpopulated the less there are, the better. If there are that many, time to thin the herd. You won't turn into some trigger happy evil version of yourself. If anything you will become the best marksman you ever thought, being extra careful of all aspects of the shot.
Man I'm good at this.
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There's one whole hell of alot going on when we kill an animal. Most of the justification for killing starlings would work for another rather nasty invasive species - us. And, starlings aren't all bad. Motzart kept one as a pet. I've killed my share, though, and didn't feel bad about it. And, I LOVE to hunt. What I really admire about you, Cliff, is that you are wrestling with this. It IS a moral dilemma! And, I love that we can talk about this here! Whatever you decide it will be part of your journey as a hunter (or maybe non-hunter). The journey will make you a better man.
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I don't believe you have to eat what you kill. I think that's just an arbitrary rule someone made up a long time ago that we hunters take for granted.
I do believe its wasteful and bad stewartship to kill animals without purpose. But pest elimination and rebalancing the local ecosystem is plenty of purpose.
I do believe its wasteful and bad stewartship to kill animals without purpose. But pest elimination and rebalancing the local ecosystem is plenty of purpose.
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I kill any starling I see. Don't matter if there's one or 100 or if it doing damage cuz sooner or later it's going to bully song birds or eat silage. I have killed about 4-500 hosp and starlings this year. And right now it's just getting into the good part of the season when there nesting and the young ones are so stupid.
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A couple of years ago I stopped shooting "live targets" just because they might be listed as pests somewhere. Starlings and sparrows are not pests at my house so I don't shoot them. I'm no PETA flag waving person but I checked myself and determined my reasons for ending an animal's life was not important enough to justify it for myself. I understand some species are a nuisance to some farmers and homeowners so I'm not anti-killing. I just decided I was just exercising "bloodlust" in blasting live targets.
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No dilemma...kill them. Nasty destructive birds.
On the positive side the feathers are good for fly tying
And House Sparrows are just as bad
http://www.treeswallowprojects.com/spardam.html
On the positive side the feathers are good for fly tying
And House Sparrows are just as bad
http://www.treeswallowprojects.com/spardam.html
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