Fed up with wanton killing of songbirds

DeadAye said:
We have cherry trees.
THEEE day that the cherries mature a swarm of Gold Finches show up and eat ALL of the cherries!
Maybe 25 years ago my son, the kid next door, and myself went out with bb guns and tried to run the birds off. We each shot a few but the others didn't care one bit - they just kept eating cherries....
I told the kids to quit.
The boy from next door kept shooting.
I told him to stop shooting because it wasn't making any difference.
He said, "That's OK - I just like to kill things." :eek:

He's spent most of his life from the time he was a young teen till lately in prison for one thing or another. He'd get out and do something else and be back in again.

Surprised?
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I think it's called "Dahmer Syndrome" these days.
 
I planted $75 worth of corn seed the 400# bear and deer herd ate it. The bear ate all the fruit on my pear, peach and Apple trees too.
I feed the deer, bear, Turkey's, etc plus the birds all winter.

I just need to feed them more.

I taught my kids with the BB gun, IF YOU KILL ANYTHING YOU WILL EAT IT. You will not kill anything for no reason that's senseless. You kill it you eat it.
 
rwsmith said:
"Because they are GRACKLES, you fool!"
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There's nothing wrong with grackles. Around here they keep the Starlings down from what I've seen. Don't get the hatred for crows unless you grow wheat.;)

We've got lots of ravens that will scavenge stuff around untidy humans. They're only doing what comes naturally, cleaning up. Between them and the Turkey Vultures the roads are kept clear of dead animals up to coyote size.
 
Killing for the sake of killing is not cool.

For food, or to protect food, or protect people, that's totally fine.

Just to kill an animal for the sake of killing it is wrong IMHO. I'm not a big fan of trophy hunting. Like song birds, I'd much rather just look at the animal through a pair of binoculars rather than shoot it just to decapitate it and preserve it's head on my wall.

It's a shame to hear about those people hurting those song birds, I wouldn't hesitate to report them at all.
 
Now I've been waken up early in the morning by wood peckers pecking on the wall outside our bedroom. Went out and threw things at them but being migratory birds and against the law to kill that's as far as I would go. My luck I would get caught by the migratory bird police and lose my firearm rights. I guess some don't care or just to dumb to know it's illegal to kill certain birds until they get caught. Glad there are no bald eagles where they live. Now nuisance birds are a different story when legal to eradicate. I hate Common Grackles and the European Starlings, when one comes by and call all there friends they clean out the bird feeder in less time then it takes me to fill it.
 
I agree about grackles and starlings, but they aren't song birds.

I don't mind having Jays and Mocking Birds around though.
Cardinals have one of the most musical chirps. I wish they weren't so shy.

I had a couple of mourning doves land on my shed a while back. I hear them all the time but very seldom see them!
 
I was around 9 or 10

when I received my Red Ryder BB gun. This was in rural AL and I could shoot sparrows. I was pretty good but once I took a pot shot at a backlit bird on the clothesline and to my regret saw it was a now dead male bluebird. It filled me with remorse and since then I made sure of my target. I did not like Blue Jays as they would prey on other birds' nests. The BB gun was pretty worn out but I drew down on one at about 15-20 feet and saw the BB hit it in the breast and bounce off... I remember thinking I had to get a bigger gun!! The Blue Jay looked at me like I was an idiot and flew off. That Christmas I got a Winchester 55, which I still have. I was not given free reign with it and could only shoot it under close and immediate supervision by my father. We moved to Maryland and it has been shot very little since then. Dad was pretty frugal and I think it was under $20. new. So that's my songbird story. :o:o
 
Here in PA and I would assume most other states, all birds are protected and as stated above, many of them are also protected by federal law. Turn the idiots in to your state's wildlife agency for prosecution.
 
Problem is these people live in different states. The forum is like this, we all live in different places. The two birds I've read about recently have been protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1918. At least some of the members are taking the hummingbird killer to task now telling him he knew exactly what he was shooting at and it wasn't an accident.
 
Never have made a habit of going around killing animals or birds for no reason. In season birds and animals are however another matter. Don't commonly kill those in season unless out hunting. Cannot remember ever killing a songbird. Same w/ buzzards, etc. Just never did it. Saw no point. That being said, do not at all see the killing of a songbird as anything more than at the most a misdemeanor, about like littering if that much. For the federal govt. to legislate on woodpeckers b/c they migrate is just the height of someone's long nose being pushed into everyone else's business. If they are pecking holes into someone's house, there is no good reason for the owner now to stop them. It's no different than when alligators were once so protected. They'd come up someone's yard and get a dog on a chain... etc. Know one gentleman who came home and found one of the things pushing under the fence in the backyard. Apparently it wanted to play with the two little girls who were playing in the yard.
 
shouldazagged said:
I happily subscribe to the belief held by a great many paleontologists that dinosaurs became birds.
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I've seen a lot of old birds become dinosaurs right before my eyes! :rolleyes::)

Seriously, I see no reason to raise a gun (or bow or stick or stone) just for "the sake of killing something". It is against every law of nature.

I can get the deer out of my garden or the squirrels out of my bird feeders with just a clap of my hands. However stopping the skunks from digging up the perennial bulbs in my front yard does require a bit more finesse!:eek:
 
I didn't look over all the posts but to answer the original questions:

1. Federal laws: You might look at the MBTA (Migratory Bird Treaty Act)= covers birds that cross political lines and are, therefore, migratory.

2. State laws: Look at your state under the general provisions. Most states have protections of songbirds.
 
I won't shoot a bird, unless it tastes like turkey. I will shoot coyotes. They kill and eat everything. Song birds, turkeys, your pets and eggs and young of all. They reproduce like crazy also. You've probably read about the young girl in Canada who was also killed by coyotes.
I love dogs but dislike 'yotes.
 
RonJ said:
Cardinals have one of the most musical chirps. I wish they weren't so shy.

I had a couple of mourning doves land on my shed a while back. I hear them all the time but very seldom see them!
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You wouldn't find cardinals here shy. I have them around my door all the time, working my suet-block feeders.

One of the great things about Ken Burns' "The Civil War" mini-series (which every documentary filmmaker has copied since) was the sound. An unforgettable scene, I think concerning the Shiloh battle, had doves hooting dolefully in the background. Eerie and moving.

I'm not a farmer or I might feel differently, but I have no quarrel with crows. Interesting and extremely initelligent birds.
 
some of the stories here in remind me of my dealings with a species of bird known as the American Woodcock.

Its a goofy, and charming bird that may stand as evidence that creation, however you believe it to be, does in fact have a sense of humor.

Part of its charm is in its defensive strategy.
Woodcocks tend to lay low in cover and stay hid till the threat passes.
If the threat comes too close, it springs to a flurry of activity that is rather convincing of a large predator.
This "too close" range is best measured in inches.
They will scare the bejeezus out of you, and probably invoke your fight or flight response.

I've laid waste to several of them, in several ways. some are amusing in retrospect.

As a kid, I played around with model rocketry a bit.
Well I had a launch issue where a fin got stripped off the rocket about 15 feet up.
It laid itself over and took a wild flight path out into the woods, causing me to grab a few jugs of water to put the fire out when I found the crash site.
After the flames where extinguished I detected some movement a few yards back along the flight path.
Eventually I found the bird, which I later identified as a woodcock, that I quite literally shot down with a rocket.
It succumbed to its injuries having been run through by basswood fragments from the rocket.

It was a Woodcock that was the first thing killed by my 44 magnum.
That Defense strategy was in full effect when this bird did its thing. I drew and fired to halt the perceived attack, Identifying the creature by its long beak and severed head.
Don't think I could repeat that shot. At least I used enough gun I guess.

In a similar case, I was unarmed and went hand to hand with one plastering it to a tree.

In each case ... I never intended to be the arch nemesis of the woodcock, But it sure was hard to avoid
 
Karma ..........will seek out these fools and see to it that they suffer the same fate that they were happy to deliver............

With out birds???the earth would be 4 foot deep in bugs in 7 days..thats a facts. go ahead keep killing birds.
 
reddogge said:
I belong to several archery/bowhunting forums and lately there have been a couple threads about killing songbirds with bow and arrow. I suspect these people are young and just getting involved with traditional archery and trying to kill SOMETHING to make them feel like they belong.

One guy bragged and took pictures of nailing a woodpecker to a tree with a flu-flu arrow. Another guy said something black appeared in front the target so he shot and hit it. It turned out to be a male ruby throated hummingbird. These kind of threads sicken me for both wanton killing and killing songbirds. What is more infuriating is the more immature members of the forum egg them on and make jokes about it.

I try to point out it is immature, illegal and just plain disgusting but I get shouted down by the wannabee bowhunters. I'd like to find a Federal source to report the next one I read about and see their butts burned.
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I'd like to catch someone doing that. :D
 
LVSteve said:
Don't get the hatred for crows unless you grow wheat.
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Crows, ravens and magpies will kill lambs. Friend posted a picture last week of a ewe with her eyes being pecked out by crows. He got her inside but she will lose one eye. He got another picture yesterday of a lamb being attacked by a murder of crows. Even vultures will attack lambing ewes and kill lambs and eat them. They do not always wait for something to die first. Other aerial predators of sheep include eagles and owls. Fortunately most guardian dogs will protect against the birds as well as the 4-legged predators.

I have no love of birds that attack my stock but I can't do much about it.
 
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