doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Raining Blackbirds!

Not guite the same scenario but there's been a couple of articles in the uk press about fishermen witnessing whole flocks of birds dropping into the sea. I believe they were migratory birds and the opinion seemed to be high winds and storms may have blown them off course and they may have been exhausted.
Struck me as a bit odd as I'd imagine there must be different levels of fitness between birds of different ages and sizes so why would they all drop ? Unless they simply follow the leader.
Ooh, could it be the end of the world ! I've stocked up on ammo just in case. The downside is there may not be any bird so shoot and eat. Doh ! !
Back to the drawing board with that one then eh.

To my knowledge, only the European starling and house sparrow are not on the protected list. Fifty years ago I heard of a bounty that was placed on Red Winged Black birds for causing destruction in cotton fields.

If birds or mammals are causing crop destruction, the landowner/farmer has to get permission to stop this. I don't think poisoning is on that list in todays culture.

About 10-12 years ago my wife, Miss Jean, was working at the Ga. Welcome Center on U.S 301 near our home. Tourists began stopping in one morning with frantic descriptions of big black birds falling out of the sky. This was at the first of the West Nile Virus scare, and as she questioned them she got more and more skeptical. They said the birds were falling out of the sky and landing right down the middle of 301.

Jean called the county health department and relayed the stories she had been told by the tourists. The head guy got to thinking that they just might have been crows and, on a hunch, called one of my crow shooting buddies. He asked him, "Ya'll didn't happen to shoot crows near Wade Plantation this morning, did you?" "Yes, we did", was the reply. "What happened to the dead ones?" "We threw them in the back of our truck when we left." "Any chance they might have blown out on 301?" "Well, maybe." "My life would be made a lot easier for the next 24 hours if they got picked up. The TV news crews are on the way here from Augusta thinking it is a West Nile epidemic." "No problem", said my friend.

They had actually thrown out over 120 crows on the middle line of the highway, every 50 yards or so, for several miles. (One guy rides in the back of the truck and throws one out every so often. Don't ask, it is just an old tradition around here.) He had to take a 4-wheeler and ride the highway peeling crows up off the pavement. We still get a big laugh out of that one every time West Nile Virus is mentioned, years later.

SRH

This from the Center for Wildlife Damage Management website: "Toxicants Starlicide is a registered toxicant for blackbirds and starlings in feedlot situations. The active ingredient, 3-chloro-p-toluidine hydrochloride, is incorporated into pelletized bait at a concentration of 0.1% and sold commercially under the trade name Starlicide Complete�. Starlicide Technical� (98% active ingredient), which can be custom-mixed with livestock feed or other bait material, is also available through the USDA-APHIS-Wildlife Services Program. Starlicide Technical� can be used only by or under supervision of Wildlife Services employees.

Starlicide is a slow-acting toxicant; birds usually die 1 to 3 days after feeding. Baiting programs are most successful in winter, especially with snow cover present, when alternate foods are scarce. A successful program generally requires a period of prebaiting with nontoxic bait to accustom the target blackbirds and starlings to feed at specific bait sites inaccessible to livestock in the feedlot. Monitoring to ensure that nontarget birds such as doves, song birds, and barnyard fowl do not feed at bait sites is essential.

If I had thought to get a movie from my phone....it would have gone viral!!!!! heh heh heh

It's the Republican's fault!

Very surprising goofy Ben is not blaming these mass starling deaths on the use of lead shot. Surely he could find some studies that show blackbirds inhale the lead fumes from hunters using lead shot, and they become so heavy they fall from the sky, being killed upon impact. Bright Boy apparently didn't pay attention to the first sentence of the above paragraph quoted from his post..."Starlicide is a slow acting toxicant; birds usually die 1 to 3 days after feeding." If Bright Boy had ever actually seen poisoned birds, he would know that they get sick and walk around as if drunk before becoming immobile, and then finally succumbing. They don't have the strength to fly with the flock and then suddenly fall out of the sky. Ben is clearly educated WAY beyond his limited intelligence. Still having problems with connecting those damned dots.

I always have to wonder when I hear of people getting panicky over such incidences, and of government experts getting involved, etc.

It's very obvious to me the simple answer, and the correct answer, to this issue is "Who cares?"

If Rev Al Sharpton and the gang at MSNBC get wind of this, they'll be calling it Racist. Notice how "they" are only killing Black Birds?