Why are smaller gauge shotguns so thin on the ground?

yes, shooting (almost all) songbirds in Canada and the US is illegal, but Old World traditions die hard... lots of Italians, Greeks and others from the Mediterranean area have a long tradition of catching/shooting small birds for the table... As a kid living in the eastern US, local Italian guys used to pay me to shoot sparrows & finches with my pellet gun

In Belgium WW2 German occupation, neighbors used to string up fishing nets in alleyways to catch any birds. Was shared with the opposite neighbour. But this was a wartime expedient only. Info: cats & dogs disappeared first. If you had a strong stomach, canal rats was a thing too.

Farmers had to give up a huge amount of thier crops & livestock to the occupying axis. Hence the German authorities allowed them to keep a shotgun to repel hungry thieves or destructive varmints such as crows.
 
Merlin or American Kestrel or Sparrowhawk?
They are all very close in size.

We have a pair of Kestrels near work. Lighter color body underneath. Light blue & shades of grey. Never seen thier upper feathers and/or in good light.

Merlins as near as I can tell but I'm no expert. I've watched them for several years and tried to match them up with various pictures and Merlin's are the conclusion I've always arrived at.
 
Merlins as near as I can tell but I'm no expert. I've watched them for several years and tried to match them up with various pictures and Merlin's are the conclusion I've always arrived at.

Try the Merlin app! Lol

But really, it's a pretty cool app for bird ID, made by the fine folks at the Cornell University Ornithology Lab.
 
Grew up on shooting starlings ,used to sit out back of our old gun club with 20g trap load ,was great for figuring lead and my old yellow lab never brought one back alive ,,could hear the bones crunching on her trot :)
 
Merlin or American Kestrel or Sparrowhawk?
They are all very close in size.

We have a pair of Kestrels near work. Lighter color body underneath. Light blue & shades of grey. Never seen thier upper feathers and/or in good light.

Try the Merlin app! Lol

But really, it's a pretty cool app for bird ID, made by the fine folks at the Cornell University Ornithology Lab.

My enthusiasm for it has cooled lately but I did a lot of birding in my day, it was a way to keep hunting all year round, and if there's one thing a birder knows for sure you need binoculars and a decent bird guide book, the National Geographic and Peterson versions are great in the field and the bulkier Sibley one at home. The Nat Geo covers the whole continent and is the best thing the Society ever turned out.

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My enthusiasm for it has cooled lately but I did a lot of birding in my day, it was a way to keep hunting all year round, and if there's one thing a birder knows for sure you need binoculars and a decent bird guide book, the National Geographic and Peterson versions are great in the field and the bulkier Sibley one at home. The Nat Geo covers the whole continent and is the best thing the Society ever turned out.

front.jpg



You've got to be careful being a birder these days. A few years ago a teacher in my little town phoned the police because some guy was hanging around behind the school with a pair of binoculars. A public announcement went out and the suspected pervert came forward the next day to report that he was a birder watching the birds in the slew out behind the school. Turns out that he was legit and on a well used paved public walkway and if the person whom reported him would have just watched what he was doing for a few minutes they would have figured that out but some folks would sooner just jump to conclusions.
 
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