Damned CowBird

One just showed at the pond. It too seems early.

I hate them. As I have posted in past seasons, "intend to kill them all this year."
So far I have never as it is hard for me to harm a creature (humans excepted).
This year I mean it.:beguiled:

It is a cute bird smaller than a Cardinal. It likes millet seed and they sit and chirp as they eat. They are fun to watch.

They have a nasty habit.
They are brood parasitic.
That means they drop an egg in the nest of other birds and abandon them, kinda like big city Democrats do most of their kids.

The Cowbird baby is stronger than the other nestlings (Titmouse, Wren, Blue Bird, Chickadee, etc) It hogs all the food the parents bring, and the real kids of the parents die.
I understand it is Nature's way like a Coon or a snake raiding a nest, but I hate it.:emptiness:

I hope I can get drunk enough to kill them this year. Maybe if I just shot the bitches, I would only have to kill half of them.

Any solutions out there from yall?

Cowbirds have arrived.
I got out my softair gun to scare them some.
That makes me feel better, but does not solve the problem.

I have a really good softair gun.

Attachment 3864
It is fairly accurate and will really spray an area on auto burst.
The answer is of couuse to hit them with my BB or pelet pistols but just can't do it, I am too soft.

Sitting on the porch early today to control unnormal stress. This is my "secure" spot.

I have a few bottles of the new Guinness Blonde American Lager.

I am firing my air soft pistol at the dammed Cow Birds. I hate Cow Birds. They seem to be following my Buntings around.

First damned Cow Bird just showed.
I hate Cowbirds. I need to kill them, but every year I fail. I hate myself for that.

Attachment 7202



I have a H&K MP7.
Attachment 7200

The Heckler & Koch MP7 is a German personal defense weapon chambered for the HK 4.6×30mm cartridge.
This gun can fire 950RPM at 2,411 ft/s.
That means all the bullets in the 40 round mag would be coming at you in 3 seconds.
That is awesome by any standard.:DAMN



They will not sell me a real one. :I'm Pissed
I own the H&K MP7 that fires plastic BBs. It cost $300.
The fire power is less. It will shoot at 900 rounds a minute at 400ft/s.
I have a redot scope on mine.

Attachment 7201

Load it with real steel/lead BB's, Bill? My pop tasked me with 'thinning the herd' of sparrows around our Ohio 'farmstead' barn and grain bins in the upstairs of our garage there in the late 50's early 60's. I would slay them with my trusty Daisy BB gun as they were at rest under the barn eaves in the evening (2 story barn so it was about a 20' shot from the ground). For him, the oats that they were consuming from these grain barns was causing his pig/sheep/cow feed bills to increase (a small percentage I'd now guess, but did not/could not do that calculation back then when I was 9 or 10 or so..).

My older sis just hated this and felt that I was a monster bird killer for doing these contract killings for him. If I could have a do over on it, I'd leave these birds alone and perhaps pitch in some of my lawn mowing money to pay for the several handfuls of oats that they may have been consuming per week. I believe my older sis still hates me today for this (or maybe because I'm a Trumpster and she's a 'Never Ever Trump' liberal who thinks Elizabeth Warren is just the greatest - go figure!) for killing these common birds (I left the Barn Swallows alone as they were much more beautiful and VERY fierce attackers if/when you threatened their nests or even came close to them). So they all lived while the passive sparrows died (well maybe a few % of them died..). There is a lesson in that: "handsome" fighters survive; the weak and not so good looking are preyed upon and slaughtered? Ah; Nature!...:welcoming:). I see pop's point; I see her's. But killing those doing what they need to do to survive is probably not the right answer: screen off the grain bins or write off what they take to charity...probably the better solution.

I'm sure Bill will say that his cow birds are killers so killing them is justified....maybe so: sparrow would/could not harm anything (except bugs, and no one gives a shit about them - they are just too small! Kill them! :welcoming:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by elgrau

Load it with real steel/lead BB's, Bill? My pop tasked me with 'thinning the herd' of sparrows around our Ohio 'farmstead' barn and grain bins in the upstairs of our garage there in the late 50's early 60's. I would slay them with my trusty Daisy BB gun.

I'm sure Bill will say that his cow birds are killers so killing them is justified....maybe so:

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The Brown-headed Cowbird is a parasite.
It is a nice looking bird and could be fun to have at any feeder. It likes millet. As migration nears, I am still going through lots of millet for my very welcome sparrows. I can't just stop putting it out because Cowbirds arrive.

Cowbirds are assholes. Instead of making a nest and raising a family like most critters, they lay an egg here and there in a weaker bird's nest. Birds are kinda dumb so sit on it. When it hatches, the stronger baby CB hogs all the food and the others starve.
In effect, if you like song birds, you don't like cowbirds. I hate Cowbirds.

Unlike you Ed, killing anything (other than maybe humans) is very hard for me. It is very hard for me.

I have a quality BB machine gun that hits hard, and a match quality lead pellet gun that hits hard and true.
I can hit them.

What powers that plastic bb gun? is it C02 or some sort of spring compression.

AO wrote "It is very hard for me."

Glad we agree on that, Bill. I cannot even step on bugs or kill or poison mice anymore. I see that their life's are just as important to them as mine is to me.....was not like that when growing up on a farm because to live on a farm means that you kill things for meat (unlike city folk who just get it in a nice plastic wrapped package at the get'n places..). On a farm you have to kill a lot of pests and rats that eat your corn in your corn crib or your cows and pigs and sheep have no food and they die and you need their milk to sell, their wool to sell, their piglets to grow into adult pigs to sell to the BUTCHER so all "gentle folks" can have their bacon and sausage.

That's reality; for the last ~40 years I have not had to face that reality (like the vast majority of folks today...for good or ill) and have been able to practice the ideal that "their life's are just as important to them as mine is to me". Which may be true, but from a practical/natural standpoint, this physical plane is not where such ideals "work"...for those who have to actually stock these "get'n places" where "the woke" get all the things that they need to live without having to face these "un-woke" realities.

Due to Pine Siskins arriving for this Winter, my stash of bird food is hard to maintain.

The only bird I hate to feed is the Brown-headed Cowbird. I fight them every year. They eat the millet that I put out for the Chipping Sparrows who visit every Winter.

A Cowbird showed a few minutes ago. I picked up the gun I keep out here and fired a few rounds. He flew off. He will return and bring friends, not much I can do.

I bought that BB machine gun like you talked about and it is fun. I will be giving it to my grand kids to play with. I just got a .177 pellet pistol that you bend to cock and it is about 400fps. That will be fun to sit in the yard and shoot at stuff. Any gun seems to be fun to shoot. I have to take the .177 and 22 pellet air rifles with scopes to my brothers as it is fun to shoot those at distance and see what you can hit. They are cheap to shoot. Come to think of it, I need to fill the feeders up again.

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I bought that BB machine gun like you talked about and it is fun. I will be giving it to my grand kids to play with. I just got a .177 pellet pistol that you bend to cock and it is about 400fps. That will be fun to sit in the yard and shoot at stuff. Any gun seems to be fun to shoot. I have to take the .177 and 22 pellet air rifles with scopes to my brothers as it is fun to shoot those at distance and see what you can hit. They are cheap to shoot. Come to think of it, I need to fill the feeders up again.