Starling Observations

[Mebits]

Things are winding down on the starling front, BUT not that fast. I'm still having 2-4 starling days, if I'm properly baited and camped out near the window.

I've made a few observations:

The first is, keep the cat food out and you'll get a couple of starlings coming by if there are any around.

The second is that if you "sweeten the pot" with bread or leftover pizza or similar goodies, you'll bring in flocks still and those flocks will all be schooled that there's food at your place and will come back as singles and doubles later on.

The third is that if you put cracked corn out, grackles will come in. If you don't mind them, they make GREAT starling decoys. If they come in, the starlings, if around but afraid, will come in too. This is more effective than wired starling carcasses and you don't need to deal with hawks, cats and possums stealing both starling and wire decoy cradle.

The fourth is a targeting issue.  Mebits "fans" will remember my loss of confidence due to a lower poi when I changed pellets and/or had a scope problem. Well, that was instructive. I fixed the issue and was killing way more starlings, but I still had a fly off or two. I got to thinking, why? The answer is simple. I was aiming too low or hitting too low. The gun is plenty accurate. I don't need to aim at center mass. Firstly, I'm rarely too high anyway. Secondly, a little low amounts to a fly off. Now, a head shot can be tough on feeding starlings, BUT a shot very high on the body isn't nearly so tough. THAT leads to more clean kills as a little high takes out the neck or head and a little low is a heart/lungs/spine shot--another fairly clean kill. I'm either going to miss or kill him with one shot on 95% of the shots.

I've found that I'm recovering almost every bird that I hit, and while I miss a couple, I'm not chasing them across yards and administering double/triple taps. I actually don't know that I'm missing any more, either. They still dodge and weave just as much as they always did.

I'm thinking that this is one of those psychological shooting issues. Like aim small hit small. I'll bet most of us are better shots than we "think" when we're shooting starlings. Instinctively, we want the nice big fat target, in case "we're a little off". The thing is, we're not that much off on most shots. I'll bet that even in the heat of things, at <60' we're no more than 1/2" off target, not including movement on the part of the birds.

Also, it's not really imperative that we hit a bird with every shot (in most cases). It's not like they won't be back so long as we keep feeding them. Of course, if we WOUND a bird, he probably won't be back even if he survives.

So, my conclusion is that we should aim high on the body, no matter what angle you're shooting at a starling. If you miss, you miss. It won't be that often, I think. As I look at my last two days of shooting, I've taken 5 shots. One miss and 4 stone dead birds (including one sparrow at 15 yds). I'm pretty confident that this approach will result in MORE net kills and less potential problems than any other.

M

Addendum: I just took another shot while I was writing this. I missed. I think I need to amend the approach. This guy was below me, facing me with his head down. The proper shot there is center mass as that's where his head is. Now I also have to say, while it's annoying to miss, it's better than that slightly sick feeling I get when I here that solid "thwop!" and then watch the bird just fly off. 

[Mebits]

Confirming. The grackles are definitely bringing in the starlings. If I open a window on the starlings, they'll often spook. BUT, if I sneak the window open when the grackles are on the fence, I can sit and wait. The moment then grackles come down and start feeding, there'll be a starling or two right on their heels, and I'm set for him.

[Gary]

Popcorn works for bait to. Popped of course and it makes a good snack while you wait.
Gary

[Mebits]

Ah, good idea! pretty cheap, too.

[longislandhunter]

Enjoyed reading your post, some very good observations.  As for the popcorn, yes, it really does work well. 

Jeff

[Mebits]

Jeff,

I took 5 starlings today and one sparrow. ONE starling flew off only to nosedive 75' off where I collected him. All the rest just flopped over dead. I missed a couple but 5 in the spring time is a good day.

I did miss probably one more than normal, but since I didn't collect any less than normal (actually more than expected), I'm happy with the result.

[fperez0209]

Definately trying the cat food and popcorn idea,I tried cheetos but got seagulls instead,Had to step on the cheetos so they wouldn't the gulls, did get a lot of Starlings afterwards.