Rare Feathers: That's great news! It must have been so hard not knowing...
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Mynahs I like. They are cute. Very trainable. Starlings.....
mean mean birds.
I think out of all the birds I have around here Starlings are THE single most disliked!
Am I gonna have to wait until they are done nesting, and try to close it up again more securely? Or is there something I can do about it now?
Hardware cloth? I don't think I'd wait. I really don't get any pleasure from destroying any critter, but it sounds like aggression and no compassion is the only way to deal with these birds. This is a small excerpt from a 2009 article:
"No other state poisoned more starlings last year than Washington. Starlings there caused $9 million in damages to agricultural operations over five years. Nationwide, starlings cause $800 million in damage to agricultural operations each year, according to a Cornell University estimate.
At one feed lot, some 200,000 starlings gathered each day, lining fence tops, wires, water troughs and even perching on top of cows. They've learned to steal the most nutritious morsels from the cattle troughs and pose an ever-present threat of moving disease from one ranch to another, said Roger Woodruff, director of Wildlife Services in Washington.
Nearly 650,000 starlings were poisoned last year in the state, an all-time record, he said."
Dat's a lot of birds potentially spreading a lot of disease...
Several people around here (North Okanogan) have said there is still a bounty on 'em, but I haven't found the official word...
The rest of the article is here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/07/shock-and-caw-pesky-starl_n_278608.html