Rahne Kirkham wrote:

"I've hidden this from my fellow tweeters as long as I can but no more! I,
Rahne, am really a starling and, as a card-carrying member of the
N.A.S.A.L. (Non-indigeneous Avian Species Anti-defamation League),
I must protest all the calumny, insults and threats heaped upon my
species and my friends the Brown-headed Cowbirds, English Sparrows,
Rock Doves etc. We have feelings, just like any indigenous birds. If you
pluck us, do we not bleed?"

Hi Tweets,

I have to agree with Rahne's sentiments. I wonder when we're going to
realize that Starlings, House Sparrows, Eastern Gray Squirrels, Nutria,
lawn grasses, yellow iris, and Eurasian-Americans are all now a part
of the Pacific Northwest native environment. They (and we) ain't gonna
go away, and the dynamic populations of 'native' species will forever be
required to interact with the 'exotics'. I usually get a bit of grief from
the 'serious' birders I go out with when I comment on how well the
Starlings are feeding on the Crane Fly (another European exotic)
larvae in my yard.

Heck, I even get it from the Earth Goddesses when I put on a banding
demonstration here in OlyWA. People who would pick up a bug in their
house and remove it outside go into conniptions when I get a Starling or
House Sparrow in my net and band and release it. "Don't you know that
these are EXOTIC species that compete with the "native' birds?"!!
When I explain that these 2 species are now part of the 'native'
ecosystem and that killing a handful every year won't put a dent in the
population but will make me feel bad (Dad taught me never to kill
anything that I wasn't going to eat), they just consider me to be Not
Ecologically Correct... Of course, these folks all plant their yards full of
Eurasian shrubs, ivy, and flowers, have fine "English" lawns full of
Kentucky Bluegrass and other exotic species, and none of my local
detractors - as yet - have had a drop of Salish blood in their bodies.

>From sea to shining sea, we of the "conquering races" have done a
fine job of completely changing the habitat. Even if we were to all re-
emigrate back to London, Dublin, Bavaria, Castille, the low countries,
Hong Kong or Shiba prefecture - this land would not revert back to the
Pristine Condition of pre-Columbian America. The valley bottoms will
have a myriad of non-native plants budding and blooming all around
our rotting dwellings, ivy will force its tendrils through the forests, and
a thousand species of insects 'new' to this continent will remain long
after our species has died away, evolved away or blasted ourselves
off the face of the earth. The Earth is as it is, and as it will be: It will
never again be as it was.

I don't think that we should begrudge a couple of 'exotic' species the
courtesy and respect we would rightly bestow on a Robin or Song
Sparrow....

Jon. (thanking the group for letting me rant & rave) Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net