Besides by-products from game animals killed for sport and food, I say yes of course, as these starlings...foreign devils everyone... will attest.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...4/Snow0003.jpg :P
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Besides by-products from game animals killed for sport and food, I say yes of course, as these starlings...foreign devils everyone... will attest.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...4/Snow0003.jpg :P
What would be the purpose of killing three of those beautiful birds? You eat them? No? You tie a thousand-thousand flies with them? No? God had fun creating them, and for a reason; to eat harmful bugs and invasive seeds. And then you kill them. Doesn't sit right .
Common Betty do you tye? If so, unless totally synthetic, your tying with material from someone's kill.
Besides...starlings...english sparrows... foreign vermin...yeah carp too! @ :lol: Give me a break.
You betcha I tie. But there's no way I could tie all the feathers from those three birds in my lifetime. And while deer, duck, goose, etc can provide sustinance for many people, I hardly think starling fits that catagory.
Life is tough I guess for starlings that infrequently invade my yard. @ :lol:
Actually they ain't bad eating...better than morning dove cause I hate to kill that American little critter.
I believe that namekagon is well set in his ideas on this subject. If a he wanted an opinion the question should have been "would YOU kill", not "should we kill". Here is my two cents worth as there is no right or wrong on this topic.
I believe a person should be able to kill whatever he or she wants to as long as their actions are in accordance with applicable state and federal laws. I am a hunter, fisherman and a fly tyer, but I do not kill any animal strickly for fly tying supplies. The only animals I shoot are eaten by me or others.
Thus, in my opinion both namekagon & Betty are both correct.
Tim Anderson
I'm not positive but aren't starlings on the protected list?
Yeah but let it known, I didn't kill em just for flying tying supplies...starling are well known pests...feathers were just a bonus.
There are some birds that ain't palatable...the coot comes to mind....but I ate these starlings! Yeah!@ :lol:
In response to Lunker......? and I'll leave it at that!@ :?
:shock: AAAAAACCCCCKKKKKKKK! You did not!! Did you? OMG!! Eeewwwwww! Yuuccckkkk!
I doubt it because this introduced European species takes a toll on the softfruit crop such as cherries and apricots. In the 1960s and 1970s there was a bounty on starlings in my region. 5cents apiece as I recall. Local farmers spend lots of money trying to keep them out of the orchards. Flocks of birds in the thousands can decend on a farm and decimate the cherry crop. They have the bad habit of taking only one or two nips out of each fruit before attacking the next one. The overall percentage of the entire cherry crop may only account for and average of 5% damage per farmer . But if it is your 10 acres they decend upon, your personal loss can be as high as 50% or more. They are shot, poisoned, and trapped all to no avail. The cost of their damage is passed on to the consumer. (You & I )Quote:
Originally Posted by Lunker
Ps In case anyone thinks I am against starlings let me assure you that I have a nest of them in the eaves of my house and see no reason to disturb them dispite the fact that they use the hood of my truck for a bathroom. I do not hunt anything that small. If they were bigger and taste good , that would be different.
I never worked at a vineyard but I understand they can do a lot of damage to those crops as well.
They are the most populous bird in our neighbourhood and sooner or later I will come across a carcass and free guilt free feathers.
Betty...if I'd eat this ...I'd eat anything and you don't know the half of it! @ :lol: This is presteamed of course!
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...SIANSTEAM2.jpg
Betty,
I think he shot three so he could send you and me each a skin and have one left over for himself...I don't think he should have to eat them :roll:
The starling was indeed introduced and they are considered a nuisance and there never has been a season on them...can shoot them anytime......certainly not considered endangered...they have been a problem in cities too...
There are reasons why this bird has fly patterns using them....no problem possessing them.
Eeeewwwww! I recognize the fish, and some of the vegies, but I don't think I want to know what some of the other things are!!
MOST of that stuff is considered a Aphrodisiac :shock:Quote:
Originally Posted by namekagon
You NAUGHTY BOY! :D
Doug
Lunker,Quote:
Originally Posted by Lunker
I don't know if you were serious or not, but when I read your reply, I almost threw up from LAUGHING!!!
Thanks,
Doug :lol: P.S. I love the people around here!
I almost threw up thinking of eating starling :shock:
On saturday I was looking at the starlings in my back yard and considdering the pelet gun. So I looked up fly paterns etc.
Starlings were introduced by a person who felt the US should have all the birds Shakespear wrote about.
They are pests that nest in the same places and out compete some of our native birds, including the mountain bluebird. I don't mind the starlings but the thought of the Bluebird going extinct beceause some Idiot introduced the starling realy ticks me off
Starlings are not federaly protected and if your state doesnt have any law against it, may be shot all year.
Eric
At least you got a laugh. Sparrows and Starlings are excepted.
I for one shall not be dinning at the "Namekagon Bar and Grille"
should it become a going concern( the food did have good color though). :shock:
p.s keep shooting. :lol:
That looks pretty good actually. The dried mushrooms (re-soaked) are really tasty, and the rest looks like spring onions, ginger, red bell peppers, fish (blue gill?) and I'm not sure of the last ingrediant? Is it roe?
Anyway, steamed with a drizzle of oil and soya sauce and this would be a really tasty meal. My wife cooks flounder this way, and salmon is really nice as well. Actuall, any fish turns out well cooked in this manner. I would personally be happy to share a dish.
- Jeff
Looks like there's a grizzly neck in there too... :lol:
perch,Quote:
Originally Posted by perch
That's the best P.S. I've seen in a while!
Doug :lol:
The new march issue of fly fisherman has a whole section on using starling to tye.
So what again, are the symptoms of avian flu? Or is it bird flew? Whatever. I hear you can get it from eating undercooked starlings. *G*
The European Starling was introduced to North America in the late 1800s, when 100 birds were released in New York City. Today, only a century later, their North American population is believed to exceed 200 million. Starlings are widely distributed all across the United States and Canada, and they appear to be slowly expanding the northern and southern boundaries of their range. Like House Sparrows, European Starlings are habitat generalists, and their distribution is closely associated with human habitation. They nest in areas ranging from rural and agricultural to suburban and urban areas, but they avoid heavily wooded, mountainous, and arid regions. Starlings readily and aggressively displace nesting pairs of other species from their nests, often destroying eggs and killing nestlings. They often out-compete woodpeckers, Great Crested Flycatchers, Tree Swallows, Eastern Bluebirds, and Purple Martins for nesting sites. Consequently, the populations of these and other native cavity-nesting species have declined.
(Source: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse/ ... 20starling)
This is a nonnative species which has caused tremendous impacts to native species and crops in the US. They are not protected by the US Government, as are most passerines.
Not quite as bad as housecats in my opinion, but...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/ ... 76_low.jpg Feet, food, and bait for research at work.
"Not quite as bad as housecats in my opinion, but..."
:twisted: :twisted: :twisted: Feral cats
From the hunting and trapping digest on the Pennsylvania Game Commission web site:
STARLINGS AND ENGLISH SPARROWS: No closed season, except during the antlered and antlerless deer seasons and until noon daily during the spring gobbler turkey season. No limit.
Normally I do not shoot something that I do not eat. However, I have seen the slaughter that Starlings unleash on the Eastern Blue Bird. I have no problem with shooting them. This is not like the argument about brown trout in our native brook trout waters. Those two species co-exist quite well in the same fisheries.
Good for you namekagon. Even if you don't tie flies, those birds are garbage. They are an invasive, introduced species that are responsible for spreading disease and wiping out native species. They nearly wiped out our state bird (Bluebird).
Betty: Here is the offical say on the Starling.
Starlings
Scientific Name: Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus (Family Sturnidae)
Starling Biology
Nest Encroachment: Starlings have been reported to dump eggs into the nests of Bluebirds. This activity can help contribute to the decline of the Bluebird species in the U.S.
Legal Status: No Federal protections as they are an introduced species (ie. Starlings are not a species native to the U.S.) Your state may have its own protections.
I have over 20 Bluebrd boxes on my farm here in SE Michigan. I delight in watching the birds, they like to come to one of my barn windows and eat flies that are hanging around the barn. I have watched Starlings go into a bluebird nest, throw out the little fledglings and lay their own eggs, which I destroy later. Ask an Oregonian Holly farmer how much damage they do to the holly crop with droppings, thousands enter the trees at night to sleep and create havoc. Sorry, they are dead meat around my farm. I use a 22 pellet rifle when they are perched and a shotgun with #9 shot when they swarm. It's kinda the ole, "mess with me and I'll mess with you" attitude I have towards them.
The classic Crow in Sauerkraut recipe is even better with a starling substitute.
Namekagon,I'll have dinner at your house anytime.
I'll try anything once.You never know I might find a new favorite dinner.
:shock:
I can understand Betty's skepticism but not the rest of you guys?
This is my favorite cookbook...bought new in 1967 for $1.00.
Somehow I don't think it was reviewed by Gray's Sporting Journal.
http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u...cat44/crow.jpg
P.S.
I'm not sure if those are oil gland stains on the page or not. :mrgreen:
Starlings are vermin. I have shot several and eaten none. They spread histoplasmosis and other diseases. They winter in Tennessee in flocks of millions, literally. I have seen a flock flying overhead that stretched to both horizons. Starlings eat an average of 2 ounces of grain, or the equivalent food, per bird, per day. 450 starlings eat a bushel of corn a day. A million starlings eats the equivalent of over 2,000 bushels of corn per day. That's an average of about 12-15 acres total production in an average Tennessee corn field. Flocks as large as 7 million have been noted.
(Note that 200 Canada geese clear about an acre of corn per day, but much of that is wasted and not eaten by the birds.)
A couple of decades ago, our then-governor was about ot institute a massive campaign of spraying detergent over roosts at night right before cold waves hit. This would cause the birds to die of hypothermia but was otherwise not very toxic to the environment. An animal rights group based out of New York City filed for a federal injunction, saying that it was cruelty to animals. Our governor immeadiately filed for an injunction against NYC's rat control program on the same grounds. He withdrew his injunction after they withdrew theirs. :twisted:
Skeptical? You betcha! I guess as a survivalist you'll eat anything to stay alive. BUT! Given a choice ... I think I'd try to be a vegetarian!
I would, however, like to be on a list to receive feathers/skins from the woodcock, rail, coot, dove, and other assorted unfortunate birds. :wink: That way, I can at least tie flies and subsist on fish!
If a person would study the life cycle of the starling they would find that the number of birds versus the number that are shot indicates that hunting has no effect on the population. Weather conditions, disease and natural predators are what keep the population in check. If it is legal in your area to shoot starlings and you enjoy it, go for it. While it probably wont do any good on population control it may help lower your blood pressure.
As a kid we lived in a rural area and were armed with the trusyt BB gun. We shot, killed and ate starlings, sparrrows, robins, meadowlarks and whatever else we could gather. They were all tasty.
In addition I take exception with namekagon's comments that coot are not worth eating. They are in fact quite tasty.
To each his own.
Tim