War with grackles

[PryorDaniel]

This is the time of year that little birds are finally leaving their nests with their parents, and today a grackle killed 2 finches in my neighbor's yard. One finch was still a baby and the other was the mother or father, my guess would be the mother though. I wanted to get out my Phantom and put a CPHP through the grackle, but since it was on my neighbor's yard I decided not to. I looked behind me and noticed Katie (mother of my child and the love of my life :D) crying. She's really sensitive when it comes to animals so seeing a grackle kill a baby bird and also the parent trying to defend the baby really upset her. I figured there was only one thing to do....

...ask my neighbor for permission to shoot grackles on his yard.


He was pretty excited about me talking care of these grackles. After giving me permission we sat down and talked for about an hour. I explained to him my plan, sit outside around 0800 when they come out and shoot as many as I can. Then he asked if I was just going to use a BB gun. I told him it's not a BB gun, but it does use air like a BB gun. Once he was interested in the subject he asked if I could bring one of my guns over. I had a giant grin on my face as I walked back to my house to grab my Phantom. He shot it a couple times and said he wants to get himself an air gun. Maybe he can help me with my war against grackles now. If only I had grass instead of river rock....then I'd have even more targets :D

[gamo2hammerli]

Good for you....now you might have a grackle killing neighbour and an airgun buddy.  What's that saying?.....oh yeah..."Kill Two Birds With One Stone".  heh heh

Btw...time for you to do some landscaping.....less rocks and all grass.

[PryorDaniel]

I'm thinking about doing at least a small section of grass, or a couple small sections of grass for now. My war with grackles has begun and my first attack begins in 9 hours.

[only1harry]

I started shooting Grackles 2yrs ago for the same reason.  I watched a younger Grackle that was not completely black yet with his mother close by watching or coaching him, repeatedly attack and maul a young house Wren that had just flown for the first time from his nest under my porch.  It flew just 12-13yds from the nest to the top of my fence and stood there for a few secs singing as I was watching it with joy.  Next thing I know this young Grackle and its mother come out of nowhere and attack it viciously.  It seems they hurt it with the first strike and it couldn't fly and it just kept screaming.  Then the mother wren came flying in trying to protect it but she was no bigger than the youngster.  The mother Grackle kept it at bay and try to kill her too but she escaped.  
I had been watching the wren's nest from when the wren parents were building it right above a 2x4 under my porch where there was very little room for a larger bird to get at it.  I watched the eggs and the encubation and the little ones since the came out of their shell.  Watching one of them die like that was a life changing event for me.  I swore to kill any Grackle I run into by any means possible.  I actually chased the Grackles away but it was too late.  The wren was half dead.  I tried to nurse it but it died later that day.  I also observed a Grackle a few weeks ago attack a Robin's nest right under my window after my wife mistakenly planted a tree instead of a bush, 2.5ft behind the house, which ended up growing quickly in 2-3yrs and reached the upstairs bdrm window.  The Robins chased it away quickly but the next day I found 1 egg on the ground and another one eaten with shells all over the grass so it seems the Grackles got their way later that day.  Same thing with Starlings.  I watched a Starling in early-middle May attack a young robin that had just hatched inside my large Spruce but both Robins came quickly out of nowhere and chased it all the way up the street.  

I think it's everyone duty to exterminate these song-bird killers with every chance they get.  Grackles are nothing but small crows that kill other smaller defenseless birds and Starlings will do anything to steal the song bird's nest even if that means eating their eggs and killing their young.  Starlings will even dispose of the eggs, and lay their own so that the other birds unknowingly can incubate them for them.

[tjk]

Way to go Danno!!! They gotta die!!!! LOL's Thomas

[Gil]

is it legal to shoot all black birds, or just specific ones? I see crows all the time.

[3n00n]

http://www.ndow.org/

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http://www.ndow.org/hunt/index.shtm

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http://www.ndow.org/law/regs/index.shtm

[shadow]

It's just that at times, sitting down and explaining your plan. One would be surprized at how many folk's are happy to let you harvest the unwanted ones from their yard, good luck. Ed

[PryorDaniel]

All the hunting supply shops in town have said for this area, anything that comes in your yard is fair game.

[Crock Pot]

Where I'm from we have a saying "if it's feral it's in peril"