When is a pest not a pest?

mwjones

mwjones

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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Location
PEI
When it's in PEI! Imagine my dismay upon moving here a couple years ago, finding out that only crows are considered pest birds here. Needless to say, i've kept the crow population at least leery of my property (small lot with a couple houses nearby, right on the highway, so i've been reduced to using my pellet rifle) and don't come around much. But grackles, starlings, house sparrows, once fair game, are now off of my pesting list.

A couple days ago I was surprised to find in the back corner of the back yard, not one, but two nesting pairs of mourning doves in the same large tree. MY eyes could have been decieving me, but i'm pretty sure there were young in both nests...too many fuzzy brown things to be the adults, and wrong colour. Imagine my dismay when i get home from school today and find said tree occupied by about a dozen grackles, the dove nests empty and damaged, and the adults nowhere to be found. I read that there's upwards of 50% mortality rate for doves, more like 70 for chicks, but damn! There was at least 6.

So here's the rub. If they were considered pests, I'd be removing grackles left and right, as there's literally hundreds around my house at any given time. Similarly, starlings here congregate in the THOUSANDS...imagine driving down the highway, with starlings spaced out an inch apart on 8 phone/hydro wires for a kilometer and a half. I can't believe with all the farmers around that they wouldn't consider these birds pests here. There are quite a few more here than I ever saw in ontario :(
 
mwjones said:
When it's in PEI! Imagine my dismay upon moving here a couple years ago, finding out that only crows are considered pest birds here. Needless to say, i've kept the crow population at least leery of my property (small lot with a couple houses nearby, right on the highway, so i've been reduced to using my pellet rifle) and don't come around much. But grackles, starlings, house sparrows, once fair game, are now off of my pesting list.

A couple days ago I was surprised to find in the back corner of the back yard, not one, but two nesting pairs of mourning doves in the same large tree. MY eyes could have been decieving me, but i'm pretty sure there were young in both nests...too many fuzzy brown things to be the adults, and wrong colour. Imagine my dismay when i get home from school today and find said tree occupied by about a dozen grackles, the dove nests empty and damaged, and the adults nowhere to be found. I read that there's upwards of 50% mortality rate for doves, more like 70 for chicks, but damn! There was at least 6.

So here's the rub. If they were considered pests, I'd be removing grackles left and right, as there's literally hundreds around my house at any given time. Similarly, starlings here congregate in the THOUSANDS...imagine driving down the highway, with starlings spaced out an inch apart on 8 phone/hydro wires for a kilometer and a half. I can't believe with all the farmers around that they wouldn't consider these birds pests here. There are quite a few more here than I ever saw in ontario :(
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shoot shovel shut up dam sparrows and grackles are wiping out the native birds dam things
 
Doves usually only lay 2 eggs at a time. They will renest tho and lay 2 more. I remember not to long ago the big migration of tjhe black birds they were all redwings now a redwing is a sight only in a few marshes. I kill starlings and grackles by the 100s. Grackles are a very nice looking bird tho
 
Grackles, like redwings and cowbirds, are native but at least in Ontario are unprotected and have no restrictions on shooting them. Same thing with House Sparrows.

mwjones, you have my sympathies. Nothing as relaxing as a warm summer afternoon plinking grackles and cowbirds off my birdfeeders with a pellet gun. We get few starlings or house sparrows in my area, and I don't shoot redwings just 'cuz I like'em.
 
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