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Picture of house sparrows

17 years ago

I just saw the winning photo for a contest sponsored by a bird specialty retailer. The retailer included the photo as a finalist, and the winner was selected by voters who visited the website. It was a photo of a bunch of hosp. Many voters commented about how pretty they were. But me.........It made me want to grab a gun.

It also made me think of all the REALLY BEAUTIFUL pictures that people have shared on this forum......of their bluebirds. Now those are pretty photos. To each his own, I guess.

Just venting.......

mac

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Comments (5)

dzyg
17 years ago
What is the address of this website? Maybe we should bombard them facts on the results the HOSP have on our native birds. I am assuming this was a US retailer??

Donna
mac60
Original Author
17 years ago
Donna,
I debated about including the site or naming the retailer in my original post. Didn't want to break any forum rules (if there were any regarding this type thing), or provide free advertising. But I think you have a very good idea. I mean....did the retailer have to choose that one as a finalist? It's along the same line as the local "bird specialty" store with lots of hosp nesting in the letters on their storefront. I just couldn't believe that when I saw it. Anyway, the link to the winning (ugly) photo is:
http://duncraft.atom5.com/
mac
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I started out feeling like you do, Barb. I couldn't see myself killing an innocent bird. Then came the summer of the bluebird massacre. I lost 3 adults to house sparrows as they were building nests or sitting on eggs. Once the bluebird is inside the house, the sparrow comes in on top of him, and he can't get out or defend himself. And the last one, the male, wasn't dead. He had been pecked in the head until he was bloody and disabled, and I had to finish the job. That's when I decided that if I was going to have bluebird and martin houses, it's my responsibility to keep the birds safe. I installed a sparrow trap in one of the martin house holes, and trapped many a housesparrow. I would then get them into a plastic bag (the ones the newspaper come in work great) and shoot the HOSP with a bb gun. The numbers of sparrows has diminished drastically, but they still show up on occasion, and I have to be diligent. It doesn't take them long to wreak havoc. This summer, I lost all the eggs in 3 purple martin nests in no time at all. The thing that irks me, is they don't have to be so destructive. The martins would let them live in their house too, they don't have to kill everything in sight. And they don't even need to nest in a nestbox - they'll nest anywhere - even on the front of our Wal-mart store. Texas Carol
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dave_in_va
17 years ago
Hard to imagine how either of the finalists was good enough to win. I can only imagine how bad the other entries must have looked.

Interesting that they referred to it as a sparrow image. They probably didn't realized that six of the 11 birds are house finches.

Dave
dzyg
17 years ago
I saw that too Dave that it was a mix of finches and sparrows. They did show all the pics, I think below in that link. None were very good. I think if you Dave, would have entered one of your worst shots (not that I have seen any bad shots from you), you could of blown all the rest away. LOL!

Donna
bluebars
17 years ago
Maybe it's all about SALES! Which bird is the most numerous at FEEDERS? Which bird will eat the most SEEDS? Which bird is the easiest for CUSTOMERS to attract?
Most likely, that photographer voted many times for their own photo. (If you review the comments, you will see that they can.)
And what's wrong with that lovely mute swan leading her group of cygnets? (Hint: they don't eat SEEDS from FEEDERS)
BlueBars

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