One of the uses of our land is to teach our grandchildren how to be good stewards of the earth. To successfully manage for wildlife sometimes means that some of the population of species must be controlled.
On February 4, 2008 the opportunity arose to teach the kids and their Uncle Junior about cowbirds. Cowbirds are not good birds to have around. They lay their eggs in the nest of the songbirds then the female cowbird flies off to go her merry way with no responsibilty for her offspring. The songbird, on the other hand, is stuck with a fledgling that is not hers and most times is much bigger than her own. The bigger bird demands the most food and often it grows and the natural offspring of the songbird dies. That is why cowbirds are not encouraged on our place.
Monday afternoon, one appeared in the chicken yard. It is okay to dispose of these birds, so out came the bb and pellet guns. Fortunate for the bird, the guns were not sighted in so when they were shot, the pellet didn't hit the target. After the third pellet whizzed by the cowbird, she got the message and flew off.
I have to say the next hour or so was spent getting the guns sighted in so that the next time a cowbird appears, it won't be able to fly off!
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