I remember when we first moved into our house in the Arrowhead Neighborhood
off Juanita Drive. We finally had a yard and could put out bird feeders and
see what would come visit. I loved watching all the smaller birds who would
visit our deck and help themselves to the seeds we provided. Then the crows
discovered we had food out in the yard. I had the same reaction to the
crows as many have to the starlings. It only took a few days of watching
these wonderful birds to realize that even though they would scare off the
smaller birds when they came, they never pigged out on the seed and for the
most part were skittish enough that if someone moved in the house they would
fly up to the trees and stay there for quite some time.

The smaller birds would return to the feeders during these intervals and
were I realized, safer because the crows were in our yard.

We had some squirrel trouble at the feeders, as well as a bird issue the
band tailed pigeons who would swoop in and clean us out in a matter of
minutes. Then they would hang around in the trees waiting for the feeders
to be refilled so they could clean us out again. We didn't want to hurt the
pigeons or the squirrels so we tried one of the super squirter water guns.
We found out very quickly how smart those creatures were. Within a week they
had figured out what the range of the water gun was and when we pulled it
out would fly/climb to just beyond the limit of the water spray and wait for
us to get tired and go back inside before coming back to the feeders.

We don't have many starlings that frequent our neighborhood, but I have to
wonder if people only had two or three starlings come to their feeders
rather than 20 or 50 or however large a flock gathers, would we feel
differently?

Melissa McKenzie

Melissa McKenzie
bmsh.mckenzie at gte.net
Kenmore By The Lake


-----Original Message-----
From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of
ravenintherain
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 11:06 PM
Cc: diannehulscher; Tweeters
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] at #$%^& starlings

Dennis Paulson wrote:
> I often defend starlings to people who despise them, saying it's our
> fault they are here, not theirs, and that's entirely true.
>
> But today they're straining my patience. I've had this nice suet
> feeder outside my window all winter, and it's bee a great source of
> joy, as bird after bird feeds from it, from flocks of Bushtits to a
> spectacular Pileated Woodpecker. Imagine a Townsend's Warbler on one
> side and a Bewick's Wren on the other.
>
A number of starlings have visited my suet feed recently. My knee-jerk
reaction was to chase them away, then I began to wonder why. It's obviously
a learned reaction and there's a word for it beginning with p.........
Starlings in and of themselves give me no reason to hate them. True, they
are relative recent arrivals, but they came to America about the same time
as my Irish ancestors and I'll fight anybody who says that us Micks don't
belong here. True, they flock together and eat from our feeders, but so do
Brewer's blackbirds and bushtits and chickadees. I can't get my mind around
the idea that bushtits are any better than starlings.

Starlings are beautiful birds, especially in their winter coats.
They're great mimics and very smart. I got one of my favorite poems when a
starling mother chose my house to nest in a few years ago. I've attached it
to this message in case anyone would like to see what a starling can
accomplish -- or at least inspire.

I was troubled by squirrels going after my feeders this fall, but I found
that if I gave them a little accommodation (their own feeding station with
corn cobs) they didn't go after the bird food much.
Somehow I have a feeling that everyone on Tweeters is rich enough to
accommodate the starlings.

Intended in peace,

Dale

--
Dale Chase
(AKA ravenintherain)
Seattle, Washington
ccorax at blarg.net