The European Starling.
It is the bane of my existence!
Unbelievably smart – like a dog. They love our cherries and eat way too many. They are mean and disgusting too. They don’t even take the whole cherry! They just eat half of it, leave the rest on the tree, then poop it out! Why even eat it?
Len and Kyle shoot them, and we have propane cannons that make a gunshot sound, but still they come. You have to sneak up on them. As soon as they see the guys raise their rifle, they take off. They know what will happen. Crazy!
[[p. 9]] After many failures the European starling was successfully introduced into this country in 1890 at New York City, where it became firmly established within a few years (about 1896), and now it must be considered a naturalized member of the North American avifauna. Within 20 years of its establishment it had become one of the most abundant birds in the region about New York City and of local occurrence from Maine to Maryland. In another dozen years it had occurred in every State from the Atlantic to the Mississippi and from the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico, with outlying records in Nova Scotia, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Texas.
So…why? Why in the world were they introduced into this country?! Sigh. I heard somewhere that the Queen of England gave them to America as a gift. Thanks a LOT!
Okay…I’m done venting.
4 Comments
June 1, 2009 at 2:24 pm
You think your “bad” birds and our “bad” birds could meet somewhere around Greenfield and let them annoy the residents there? However, I must admit ours are an occasional bother. Yours seem long lasting.
July 1, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Hi Tena: I was enjoying some delicious cherries today and wondering how your cherry orchard is doing? Be gone vile fowls! Love you! Karen
July 4, 2009 at 4:43 pm
anyway…you took a great picture of the bird.
August 8, 2009 at 1:08 pm
I hate those birds also. They are the bane of my existence too. It is hard to kill them because they are smart like you said. I’ve been observing them since I was younger and they mock a lot of birds. I’ve heard them mock haws and even Gulls.