I am with you Darlene, and the other thoughtful people who responded to your
post. I too am horrified every time there is mention of killing on a bird
list. It is beyond me to understand. I had a horrific experience a couple
of weeks ago in the Skagit. I was admiring a group of stunningly beautiful
snow geese, eating in the fields, minding their own business. I was
enjoying them through my bins when I spied two hunters hiding cowardly in
the irrigation ditch. Then a huge bang and one goose is shot. It did not
die right away but struggle to try and fly only to have the dog catch it
before it was shot again. It shakes me to my core that humans can be this
way.

Margaret Parkinson
University District, Seattle

PS: I know it is against the rules to post about hunting but I have noticed
this "hunting season" that there have been a number of posts that have
included hunting issues that have gone uncorrected. It has seemed to me
that so long as one does not criticize hunting it is OK to post about it.
Well, for me, it is as disturbing (perhaps more) to read about birds being
killed as it is for hunters to read criticism. Some days I have been
reluctant to read Tweeters for what I might find unexpectedly within a post.
So it needs to be one way or the other, either there is NO discussion about
hunting or anyone can say what they think.


-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Darlene
Sybert
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 6:25 PM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Tweeters] Is it legal to kill crows?

I'm horrified that anyone on a bird list would consider killing crows
(such a beautiful, intelligent species) or any other bird--even game
birds.

Even if those species that are non-natives are intrusive and hard on the
natives, one should remember that few (if any) of them came here
voluntarily and none of them with malice aforethought. :) Most of them
were imported by men, either on purpose or because their caged birds
escaped.

Getting unwanted birds away from your feeders or property is relatively
easy because all you have to do is remove the food source. Take those
feeders into the garage for a week or so, and the unwanted birds will
disappear. I did this several times in the Midwest to stop large flocks
of English Starlings from coming to my feeders, and it worked like a
charm. And a day or two after the feeders were replaced in the yard,
woodpeckers, blue jays, cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches,and goldfinch
were back as if they had never been gone.

Another thing we did to keep the larger birds away from the finch feeders
was put a large platform feeder full of an array of seeds in the
backyard, and the finch feeders in the front yard. I suspect something
similar would work with crows, too. As my grandmother used to say, if
you plant corn, the crows will come.

Darlene Sybert
Cinebar WA
drsybert at northtown.org
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