A stupidness of house sparrows
Dec. 28th, 2015 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thanateA few years ago, I put out peanut feeders and only got native birds. Then I added sunflower seeds in hopes of seeing something else, and while I do occasionally get goldfinches (yay!) I also get all the house finches (invasives from the other coast) & house sparrows (little english jobbies that are now invasive just about everywhere). They even come to the peanut feeders.
We refilled the peanut feeder on the deck on Christmas, and there were cold puffy sparrows mobbing it this afternoon, and then I looked out and discovered that one of them had got his head stuck in the hook that holds the feeder onto the porch. I have no idea how, but his neck slid too far down between two 1/2" steel bars, & he was futilely pushing with both feet and a wing trying to get out.
I was on the phone with my mother at the time, so I lifted him back out one-handed, told him he was an idiot, and did not attempt to put the phone down to snap his neck (the textbook recommended form of most humane sparrowcide.) He was very polite about it, too; not visibly afraid, just stared up at the big scary creature who was holding his entire body in one hand, and then fluttered down to the ground long enough to straighten out his flight feathers before departing.
I'm still both utterly amazed at the idiocy, and trying to decide if not dispatching a sparrow while I had the chance is compromising my principles or not. On the one hand, invasive bird gangs; on the other, killing things shouldn't be comfortable.
Xposty from dreamwidth.
We refilled the peanut feeder on the deck on Christmas, and there were cold puffy sparrows mobbing it this afternoon, and then I looked out and discovered that one of them had got his head stuck in the hook that holds the feeder onto the porch. I have no idea how, but his neck slid too far down between two 1/2" steel bars, & he was futilely pushing with both feet and a wing trying to get out.
I was on the phone with my mother at the time, so I lifted him back out one-handed, told him he was an idiot, and did not attempt to put the phone down to snap his neck (the textbook recommended form of most humane sparrowcide.) He was very polite about it, too; not visibly afraid, just stared up at the big scary creature who was holding his entire body in one hand, and then fluttered down to the ground long enough to straighten out his flight feathers before departing.
I'm still both utterly amazed at the idiocy, and trying to decide if not dispatching a sparrow while I had the chance is compromising my principles or not. On the one hand, invasive bird gangs; on the other, killing things shouldn't be comfortable.
Xposty from dreamwidth.