>From Maple Ridge - Pitt Meadows News
By KURT LANGMANN
METROVALLEY NEWS

They're the bane of blueberry farmers, who often employ the
contentious ?crop cannons? to frighten the marauding flocks of birds
away

They've also been denigrated by environmentalists because they're not
an indigenous species to this continent and they ?aggressively
displace? native bird species.

They are European starlings, also known by their Latin name sturnus
vulgaris.

Just over a hundred years ago, 100 starlings were released in New
York City, and a century later their North and Central American
popula-tion is believed to exceed 200 million. Needless to say many
people shake their heads in won-der when they see a five-generation
Milner dairy farm, Davistead, has more than 250 nesting boxes set up
expressly for starlings.

Hugh Davis and his son, David, acknowledge that many other old-timers
here think it?s daft, but the two men have observed that the
starlings have eradicated their crop losses due to leatherjackets.

As Hugh said, ?Nature has a funny way of working things out.?

?We haven't had to spray pesticides for 10 or 15 years now,? said
David. ?Leatherjacket larvae -- the grubs --- were a real pest, they
used to be a real problem. They'd eat our forage (grass) and there
would be bald patches, three acres or more, just wiped out by the
larvae.? The family farms over 200 acres in Milner, and milk 150 of
their 300 head of cows thrice daily Hugh says that when he started in
the family farm back in 1945 there were over 90 milk shippers in the
neighbourhood.

?We're the lone survivor today and we pro-duce just over the same
amount of milk as those 90 farms did; about 5,000 litres a day,? said
Hugh. ?Times have changed.?

About 140 acres is in forage, and another 70 acres is in silage corn.
The leatherjackets don't affect the corn crop, however, wireworms in
the corn are a problem that the Davises would like to find a natural
solution for as well. The star-ling population in the area has done
well for 10 years or more, as the birds adapt well to nesting sites
in tree cavities and rock crevices near open fields.

Davistead was the perfect environment for them and David said, ?We'll
see 2,000 birds at a time in our field after grubs.?

However, it wasn't until earlier this year that the farm actively
recruited starlings by installing the nest boxes. This came about
when an SFU biologist, Oliver Love, was looking for a research site
to conduct his doctoral studies into the practicality of employing
star-lings as a natural aid to agriculture.
?SFU approached the local bird club (Langley Field Naturalists) to
help find a suitable location for the research. Keith Robertson (a
long-time LFN stalwart) and the club members often come here, and
Keith asked me about using this site,? said David. ?They used to have
it set up at the UBC research farm in Agassiz but there was a
conflict there because all farmers tend to see starlings as pests.
But we're not really accom-modating the starlings here so much as
just watching them.

?So in March 2002 they started a three year study here, which has now
been prolonged. Oliver and a team of two to three people set up all
the boxes, 250 of them in our fields and in the barns, and they come
in to study them dur-ing the nesting season, mid-April to the end of
June,? said David. ?Oliver spends an awful lot of time at it ? they
can be here until 2 a.m., counting the eggs and labelling the birds,
and then they're back at the crack of dawn.?

David added that only 40 to 50 per cent of the boxes are inhabited,
and starlings never return to the nests in which they were born.

?They want to see the effects that ?good mothers? have on population
levels,? said Hugh, noting that scientists have observed a wide range
of skill levels in raising their young among the nesting mothers.
?There's a four year population curve ? although there's been a
decline for the past 10 years in England which they donut understand
? and they want to see how a hormone implant they're using affects
the mothers.?

The Davises are not exactly what one would call ?greenies? or
environmental extremists, as they see it more from a practical point
of view ? they can farm without using chemicals, the starlings aren't
interested in eating animal feed, and best of all, it doesn't cost
anything. It's the same with the barn owls which nest in their barns
? the owls keep vermin populations low on the farm.

And, ironically, as we sit around the dinner table talking about the
starlings, the Davises haul out a big bucket of blueberries and
invite me to dig in. The farm has a row of ancient blueberry bushes
which Hugh's mother planted before he was born. I ask if they have
nets over the bushes to keep out the birds, and Hugh snorts as he
retorts that they've never had to protect the berry crop, and
besides, the starlings aren't interested in the berries, as they much
prefer the grubs.

?I think the crows are worse for that, but we?ve always had plenty of
berries as long as I can remember.

Roger Craik
Maple Ridge BC

PS This has been scanned in and run through a OCR Program as no
electronic copy was available. Apologies for any errors that may have
been introduced.