As most of you who read the posting below probably noticed, there was a
mix-up about Starlings and another black (but brown headed) bird. I thought
it shold be corrected. While Starlings may evict other hole nesters from
their holes and may kill the young or eggs, the Starlings then take care of
their own young in the commandeered holes. It's our native Cowbird that
lays its eggs in other bird's nests for the other birds to raise, not
Starlings. On the other subject, the answer to preventing Starlings and
cats from impacting native wildlfie is to train the cats to eat the
Starlings. A side benefit of this would be that we wouldn't need to raise
corn to feed the chickens for cat food. Former corn farms could then lie
fallow to become better wildlife habitat. Alternately we could train packs
of 24 cats to each catch one Starling and bake them together into pies for
us. The cats should be taught to be gentle with the Starlings they catch
though, as we want them to sing their lovely songs when we open the freshly
baked pies.

Stewart Wechsler
West Seattle
mailto:ecostewart at quidnunc.net
-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Martyn Stewart
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 8:44 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: RE: Nest boxes for Flickers, and homemade suet feeders that block
starlings?


Ken Boettger wrote < Starlings are an introduced exotic species that
parasite the nests of native birds. They kill the mother's eggs by removing
them from the nest and then they lay their own leaving the native bird to
raise them.I am not advocating this, but... some folks enjoy using a BB gun
to reduce starling populations and advocate it to others under the premise
that if enough folks started shooting them, they could be controlled (humans
have the ability to hunt species until they become 'locally' extinct). They
say to make sure you have a safe backstop (wall of a garage, shed or large
fence) to stop the BB's and to hang the suet feeder within 10 feet or so of
a window. There have been suggestions of placing a garbage can below the
feeder with a plastic bag liiner. Others find it distasteful. All I know, as
a former range and wildlife ecologist, is that they disrupt the native
ecology something terrible. They are also very aggressive and drive the
other birds away from one's feeders. You will have more woodpeckers,
chickadees, nuthatches and such if there were someway to control the
starling populations. But, I am just sharing info here and I am not
advocating the use of BB guns. But I found it rather entertaining to find a
website dedicated to just this.> We are an introduced species too and do
far more damage than a Starling does,should we shoot ourselves? cats left
out at night kill millions of birds and they are introduced, should we
start killing cats too? How pathetic is this statement, I have an abundant
amount of birds in my garden including Starlings and a list as long as your
suet orders! call yourself a birder, you should be ashamed of yourself.



Martyn

Redmond, Washington

http://www.naturesound.org







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