Fun With A Predator Call Poem by Kim Barney

Years ago, I bought one of those
electronic predator calls.
It has five different sounds:

wounded cottontail, injured
jackrabbit, coyote howls, coyote
pups, and mule deer fawn.

Never did get around to using it
for hunting, but recently I just
found a new use for it! For years

I've had several bird feeders
hanging in my apricot tree
that I watch from my kitchen

window. Over the years I have
enjoyed black-capped chickadees,
American goldfinch, downy and

hairy woodpeckers, northern
flickers, house finch, house
sparrows, Western scrub jays,

scarlet tanagers, and many other
birds. But recently my feeders have
been overcome by hungry, greedy

European starlings. These birds
arrive in huge flocks and they
intimidate and scare away all

the other birds. Plus, they eat up
my feed so fast, I have to keep
buying it more often. The other

day I came up with the answer:
I tied the speaker part of the
predator call to the tree, under

a limb where it can barely be seen.
When the starlings arrive, as soon
as they start eating, I press a button

on the handy-dandy remote and
they can't get away fast enough!
The coyote howls work the best.