Got out of work a few hours early today and as luck would have it I had the Summit in the truck today. So I drove down to the dairy and parked by the tree that I shot the starling out of yesterday. When I looked out the window I saw a brightly colored rooster pheasant standing only 10 yards away, he was doing his best to be invisible by lowering himself to the ground and not moving. I turned the truck off and rolled down the window, within a few minutes he must have decided I was no threat because he started feeding again. I will admitt I lined him up in the scope and had the cross hairs centered right in the middle of his head. I was dissapointed I didn't have the camera with me but I enjoyed just watching him.
A few minutes later, just like the day before 3 starlings landed in the tree. I loaded a Red Fire in the Summit and took aim at the highest bird in the tree, got a good solid rest and started the trigger squeeze. At the shot I heard the pellet stike home and saw the bird recoil from the pellet strike. I saw him fall out of the tree, loosing a few feathers as he bounced off a few branches on the way down. But just as I was feeling good about another successful shot he righted himself about 4 or 5 feet of the ground and flew away trailing the other two. I sat there thinking maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me and there was really 4 birds in the tree. No way could what I thought I saw really happen, I mean I heard the hit, saw the feathers and watched him tumble out of the tree on the way to the gound. So I grabbed a few more pellets and headed for the tree, fully expecting to see him dead on the ground near the back side of the tree. But when I got to the tree there was no starling, the ground around the tree is pretty baren so I'm sure if he would have made it to the ground I would have found him. I guess that one got away. But I'm sure he's not alive as I write this. I noticed a few other dead birds one the ground, a few of them were Red Winged Blackbirds, I'm sure they fell victim to the poison that is being put out by the state. While walking around I noticed a few noise cannons that the state has also placed down there. Before I left I walked over and talked to the operator of the farm for a few minutes. He said he's trying everything to keep the birds away but they adapt to all of his control methods. I told him I'd keep at them and he thanked me for my efforts, I think tommorrow I'll head down there again and take my son with me. Maybe we'll take a few scatter guns to up the harvest numbers after we have a little fun with the air rifles.
