Ian and Tweeters,

I don't recall having heard this one. However, it is worth pointing out that
Starlings, although they are huge pests to growers of some agricultural
crops (such as cherries, grapes, and blueberries), are beneficial to
owners of sod farms, golf courses, etc.

The European marsh cranefly (Tipula paludosa) is introduced and
widely established in the Pacific Northwest. It is a serious pest of turf
farms, golf courses, and even suburban lawns. The larvae, known as
leatherjackets, are large and feed on the roots of grass plants. They can
kill patches of grass, or at least seriously retard the growth of grass.

The favorite food of Starlings is the larvae of soil insects, especially
large ones such as leatherjackets. In one study in Britain, more than half
the
food that Starlings fed to their young consisted of leatherjackets!

No wonder Starlings have been so successful in the Nothwest, when we
cut down thousands of square miles of forest, replaced much of it with
pastures and other expanses of grass to create ideal Starling habitat,
and even introduced their favorite food!

However, I would never have gone so far as to recommend people putting
up Starling nest boxes to help in controlling leatherjackets. If any turf
farmers have done that, they've done so without the approval of
government agencies.

(The BC government has, in the past, recommended using large cage
traps, which can catch 100 or more Starlings a day, in fruit-growing areas.
They even employed staff to operate them for quite a few years.)

Wayne C. Weber
(Former Wildlife Damage Specialist, BC Ministry of Agriculture)
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Paulsen" <birdbooker at zipcon.net>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 10:41 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] starling nest boxes


HI:
A couple of years ago I heard about a B.C. sod farmer who was putting up
starling nest boxes so they would nest on his farm and help control
european crane flies! Does anybody have a source of this ( a newspaper
article I think?) report?

--
Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
"Rallidae all the way!"