So, in all this, what is the main purpose I'm trying to work towards? Rashly speaking, I would love to able to take Starlings and H. Sparrows and R. Doves out of where they have invaded, along with any other problematic species worldwide, but more realistically, I'm mainly focusing on ridding at least Missouri of our huge populations of these birds. In this way, these places will become a little closer to what God created them to be like in the beginning. In the long run, in the (God-willing, near) future, I would like to start a "club" of starling hunters like myself, and every month or so, I'll post the results of our gathered efforts with a grid showing the numbers of birds killed, and by whom they were eliminated.
4 comments:
Hey Sam it's Eloi here.
I was wondering, why are starlings a problem in MO? I like your blog btw you've got great photos
Hi Eloi! If you go to my "Intro. to hunting Starlings" page and start from the bottom up, you can see why they're so bad, not only in Missouri, but in all of North America and a lot of countries besides. They mainly compete with native species, and damage farm crops.
Hey Sam, I must say, I feel a bit awkward.Allow me to explain. I live in a house with large yard. And I have been an avid airgunner for years. I am 50 yrs old. That's right. (hence, my awkwardness). But I have been the hurt on the starlings lately and I was googling Starling Hunting as I have this idea that works WELL with crows. I was going to cut some starling silhouette decoys out of black construction paper and make yellow spotches on them. I would then glue a sharpened pop cycle stick to them and set them up in my yard in a mock flock, hoping to draw in other starlings. Why is a 50 yr old man concerned with this?? Because I am homebound as my mother's full time caregiver. She is bedridden with endstage Alzheimer's disease and I have been caring for her for 3 yrs. I presently own a Daystate Huntsman XL (22 cal) and a Theoben MFR 177 cal. They are sighted in at 30 yards dead on. I also own an HW80 in 22 cal and an HW95 in 20 cal. Sighted in at 25 yds. I tune my springers myself with aftermarket kits and such. I came upon your site and joined. I am likely not even in the right thread for intros but I am learning my way around. What do you think of my decoy idea? Is it worth it?? What about bait? Best kind? I killed one starling which had a grub in its beak. But I need something I can buy in bulk to draw them in.
Hi Mr. Blankenship!
Glad there are other people who try to keep Starlings in check!
I have not been very innovative with Starling decoys; I've only used real Starlings, dead or alive, as decoys. The best result have been with keeping them in a simple chicken wire cage with a plywood back, mounted 4-5 feet up, and roosting box attached. They are simple to keep alive by feeding them crushed dog food and water daily.
The decoy idea is an idea worth trying, but maybe add some Starling feathers to the paper to make it look more real. I'd like to try that too sometime.
Yes Starlings eat most types of insects including worms and grubs.
I know they like dog food in smaller bill-sized pieces, so you could try that.
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