>About a week ago, Dennis Paulson posted a note about starling roosts and
>their wide daily dispersal. For the most part, I feel like you can find
>starlings just about anywhere. But I was impressed to see them at both
>Stevens Pass (Friday) and Snoqualmie Pass (Sunday), when no other birds
>except Ravens were around, and it was in the 20's, snowing like mad. It
>proved to me that they really are EVERYWHERE.
>
>____________________________
>Mike Smith
>Univ. of Washington, Seattle
>whimbrel at u.washington.edu

Yep, they really are. They breed in crevices in rock cliffs all through the
Columbia Basin, they breed in woodpecker holes in tall old-growth trees in
Olympic National Park, and everywhere inbetween. According to Christmas
Bird Counts, their numbers have stabilized in this region; perhaps
eventually their populations will decline, as has happened with House
Sparrows.

If anyone read the article in the Seattle P-I in which I was quoted as
saying "kill 'em all," the reporter didn't add the second part of what I
said, which considered the alternative of the starlings moving elsewhere
and causing the same problem. I recommended that any reasonable attempt to
deal with the problem would avoid the "NIMBY" solution, and that
elimination might be the only alternative to that. As well as lessening
competition with native hole-nesting birds.


Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound email: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416