Star-tiling results

[airiscool]

Since my home-made suet tuned out to be such a dud I gave in to commercialism and picked up a suet cage and a pack of suet at Walmart this morning.

When I got home I re-filled the feeders, hung the suet cage, tossed some more dry cat food and went back in the house. Within 30 minutes I looked out and the cage had several Starlings hanging on to it fighting over it !!!! There were at least a dozen more on the ground going after the dry cat food.

And right there with them was the "Pied Piper" Crow.

There were at least a couple dozen more in each of the several trees surounding the feeder. I've never in all these years here seen anything like this.

Every time those at the food spooked up into the trees, the Crow would stay put and in a short time they'd come back down to feed. When the Crow finaly went up in a tree they stayed further away. Eventually the Crow left and there were no more Starlings to be seen anywhere. I went out to look. In just a few minutes all the cat food was gone and they'd put a hurtin' on that suet cake. Then I remembered we used to call them, "Flying Piranhas" when I lived on Long Island !

May just be coincidence, but I think there is some connection between the Starlings and my resident Crows.  Anyway, I'm sure liking these Crows I've got here.

The Girlfriend asked what's with all the attention to Starlings. I told her how they are invasive and will push out the song birds that she's so fond of.  She got a stern look on her face and just said , "Shoot 'em". My kinda gal !!!!!    

Figure I'll give the Starlings a day or so to get used to food/suet being here before letting loose with the Whisper.

Thanks guys for all the Starling hunting info.

Paul.

[longislandhunter]

Once they discover your suet cakes they'll keep returning as long as there's suet in the cages.  Every day now I have starlings visiting my suet cages on a regular basis.  Only bad thing is that once I shoot they take off and don't return for a long time.....  

Anyway, sounds as though you're in store for some solid yellow beak shooting  

I'm already looking forward to the posts and pics  

Jeff

[dk1677]

Looking forward to your posts on  your song bird saving ; )

[atchman2]

I've got to put my suet cake back out.  My wifey picks them up for me at clearance sales.  I'm not even sure you can make them any cheaper.  

This morning they devoured one and pulled open the suet cage.  

If they keep coming back they are doomed!  I have a deck that runs all along the back of my house.  My wife put some latice on it.  I can hide behind it and snipe all day!

[Furseeker]

Paul I'm glad you finally have some starlings to give you some targer parctice. But that is completely opposite of what happens with Utah Starlings. I've had commercial store bought suet cakes in some of my suet feeders for months and no birds will touch them. But I only put out my home made suet cakes on Friday mornings, because they go to fast, if I put some out on Friday the birds get use to feeding on them and I usually have some pretty good weekend action. The home made one's go to fast to put out on week days when I'm at work.  But what ever works to get them coming in. The dairy farmer down the road let's me shoot as many as I can with my pellet gun but he always tells me when I'm done playing with my "toys" take a few shots with a shot gun to try and scare them off.  He told me last week he was going to contact the state fish and game department to see if they would come and poison some of them for him. Here in Utah the actually have a poison called Starlacyde that they use when the birds concentrate so much they become a nuisence or health hazard. Good luck and I hope to see some pictures of some your successful shooting soon. My wife acually asked me if she could try and take a starling this weekend. She is a dead eye on beer cans so I hope she can score on a bird, if she does I might just have to get her a gun of her own.

[atchman2]

Go Go WIFE!!!!

BTW Found the mount

[Furseeker]

Oh crap, she just read the post and said, yes she does want to shoot a starling, but no on the gun, for some reason she feels like I have enough to share. I'm glad you found the mount it will be great once I get the B28 shooting.

[airiscool]

Dave,
I'll bet it's because your a better cook than I.  

To see if it would bring in the Starlings here, I thought it would save some and use up the bacon fat we have, that so far, I've only been using occationally to polish the old coal stove. We don't eat much bacon so not much fat to be saved. If the Starlings come in the numbers like yesterday, what little  bacon fat we do produce will not last long and I'll have to buy all the ingredents anyway.

 The Walmart suet cakes weren't much more expense than what I'd probably spend if I have to make them ... and most importantly.. THEY WORK !!!!! So far, mine didn't.

Besides, if these Walmart suet cakes keep working as well as they did yesterday, and it's getting too expensive to keep buying alot of  suet cakes, it's probably because I'm not spending enough on pellets !!!!    

Paul.

[only1harry]

Way to go Paul.  Just stay out of sight and shoot through an opening in the shade, blinds or door if you can.  They usually can't see you if you are several feet back.  Make sure you go outside by the bait station and look back at your position.  If it looks pretty dark from the outside then you 're good to go.  A small flock of Starlings can go through your bait in just couple of minutes.  They go into a feeding frenzy.  

Also make sure you have all the windows & blinds shut so the house or room you are using is as dark as it can be.  Wear dark or black clothing.  I was wearing my Realtree camo outfit and as soon as the Starlings would land they would take off.  I then realized there are some white lines/streaks in the camo so I switched to all black outfit and that did the trick from my new position shooting through an opening in the vertical blinds out the family room window facing the backyard.  I had to prop the blinds open/apart with heavy items because the wind would mess them up, but luckily there is a very wide window sill, counter-top like below the window and also goes around the room, so I was able to use heavy items to nail those blinds down from moving and closing the gap.  Of course I have a little hole in one of the blinds because it can be deceiving with the crosshairs clearing the blinds (but they don't sometimes!), but I have since widened the gap to 4" and moved farther back a couple of feet to around 10ft from the window using a bipod that can be adjusted to >5ft high.  I am in the middle of the room with nothing to lean on so the bipod I had bought a couple of years ago came in handy.  They are great for standing way back away from the window.  It's not a solid bench rest but a lot better than shooting off-hand which I kind of suck in
Good luck!  I don't know how you can look at that crow without shooting it

[atchman2]

(AND the crow is worth more POINTS!) Somebody said that on the forum and I thought it was hilarious!  

[Mebits]

You know, they make these large traps that can catch hundreds at a time and thousands over a season...

That's way better than poisoning. Stuff will eat those birds...

[Mebits]

interestingly, mine did not like bacon fat nor did any birds particularly like bacon fat and sunflowerseed cakes. Well, when it got really cold, they ate it, but they ate EVERYTHING.

M

[airiscool]

"...............Good luck! I don't know how you can look at that crow without shooting it ......."

I'm starting to think of our four Crows here as Beagles with black feathers. Yeah, they make alot of noise, but as long as they help with the hunt, I'll keep feeding 'em and put up with the noise.    

Paul.