It's a beautiful sunny, warm day here so I grabbed my Winchester 1000 .177 and figured I'd try a little hunting at the duck farm. I haven't been there in quite a while, and I wasn't sure how I"d do, but figured what the heck.
As I pulled into the farm I looked at the trees and the large box feeders and said to myself "I didn't bring enough pellets". The trees were literally covered with birds, the feeders were one big mass of moving black birds, there were literally thousands of birds. I was really psyched !!
I got out of the truck, grabbed my gun, cocked it, inserted a Crosman pointed pellet and aimed the gun at the big dead pine tree about 25 yards away trying to pick out a target from the hundred of birds perched. Finally picked out a bird perched on the end of a thin branch, squeezed, BAM one dead starling fell to the ground.
By the time that bird hit the ground it was like some kind of secret bird signal was broadcast because every single bird within sight took flight, they all bunched up into 2 or 3 huge flocks, then they all headed north. They were all gone, I couldn't believe it. I meandered around the farm for the next 2 hours looking for squirrels or rabbits and hoping the starlings would return, but they never did. Couldn't find any squirrels or rabbits either. I even spent some time sneaking through the barns in the hope of seeing some rats and getting a chance to use the laser sight I have mounted on the scope, but the rats were nowhere to be found either.
I had a good time, and got some much needed excercise, but I wish those starlings had stayed just a little longer. For some reason the winter starlings are very wary, flighty, and once shot at disappear for good. The spring and summer birds fly off when you shoot but they don't fly far, usually just to the next box feeder. Oh well, spring will be here eventually and at least I know that the starlings that return in the spring will go back to their old pattern.
Jeff
