Trapping and Shooting Strategies for Eliminating European Starlings and…

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Kathy

I’ve been meaning to write this article for a long time.  As a member of a few birding forums, I see a lot of requests for advice with sparrow trapping and shooting and I always post a lot of information, but never thought about putting it all together into one article – until now.  This article will benefit both blue birders and purple martin landlords, as well as anyone who puts up housing to host any of our beautiful North American native birds.

After I shot my first starling in 1998, I put the gun away and cried for three days.  I just couldn’t bring myself to do it again.  Then, I moved to Missouri in 2007 and decided that I wanted to put up a purple martin house and have a bluebird trail on my 23 acres.  But when I first read the articles on the Purple Martin Conservation Association forum about hosting purple martins, my heart sank; one of the key elements for attracting and keeping purple martins is control and elimination of the non-native, invasive species; the European Starling (EUST) and the English House Sparrow (HOSP).  Then I read the bluebird forums and found the same information and learned that HOSP are also a particular problem for bluebird trails.

Entrances on purple martin housing can be fitted with Starling Resistant Entrance Holes (SREH), to keep starlings out and the holes on bluebird houses are far too small for the starlings to enter.  The more insidious problem is the HOSP, because any hole that was small enough to prevent the HOSP from entering would also prevent the purple martin, bluebirds or tree swallows from entering the nest box as well.

During my first year I trapped and killed more than 35 HOSP at my site.  They wreaked havoc on my purple martin, bluebird and tree swallows’ eggs.  At first, I was timid in my approach, however, after experiencing the loss of 5 one-week old baby tree swallows, my compassion for the HOSP ended.  A male HOSP came by at 7 AM one morning and by 7:30 AM had committed the atrocities for which he is well known.  At that point, I declared war on every HOSP and became determined to educate every purple martin and bluebird landlord that I came into contact with about the issues with allowing HOSP to breed and roam their sites.

Figure 1-  One-week old tree swallows were victims of a HOSP attack.

Identifying the Starling and English House Sparrow:

The Starling is pretty easy to recognize:  bright yellow, long beaks, long legs and irredescent coloring of their feathers.

The male English House Sparrow is also easily recognizable, but the female is a bit more difficult to identify.  The male’s markings are pretty distinct, with the distinguishing ‘bib’ below his beak.  The female has a buff-colored stripe that goes through her eye and a buff-colored belly, but the most telling indicator is that she’s hanging out with a male HOSP.  The other indicator is that they are invading your nest cavities and building a very unique nest.  The Sialis.org site has much more information on id’ing HOSP.

 Figure 2 – Male English House Sparrow Figure 3 – Female English House Sparrow

If you are interested in only passive measures for managing HOSP and starlings that are invading your nest boxes, then you should read no further.  Passive measures such as nest pulling do not work and you are not yet serious about protecting our native birds.  I am only interested in protecting the native birds that I invite to nest on my property and by doing so, I feel obligated to do my absolute best to protect them and their offspring.  Allowing a HOSP to live only serves to delay the inevitable and ensures the death of one or more of our native birds.  I have found that other stories, such as, “if you shoot the male, the female will leave” are simply not true either.  I’ve shot 3 males that had paired up with a female that became attached to a neighbor’s house and she never left, until I was finally able to kill her too.  The only measures that will guarantee that your native birds won’t be harmed by these non-native species are aggressive measures intended to kill them.

Do not be discouraged by the number of house sparrows around your area.  This study by University of North Dakota determined that the HOSP has a range of 2-4 miles from its natal site and most of them won’t venture beyond that range.  That means that yes, you can make a difference by trapping out large numbers of HOSP in your area.

From the article: “A concerted effort based on trapping could reduce house sparrow damage on the small, experimental plots of cereal grains and sunflower grown at the station.”  Reference:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/publications/08pubs/linz088.pdf

Shooting:

I have to admit that I am not a crack shot.  I do have my days where I am dead-on and other days when I am dead-off!  I have an RWS-850 –C02 pellet rifle and I love it.  Others highly recommend the Beeman R-7 break barrel gun, but I have no experience and cannot speak to that gun.  Search the “Straightshooters” forums and the PMCA forums for more discussions on the best gun for you.

I actually prefer trapping now over shooting, but I will shoot if I have to.  The lessons I have learned are:  1) Only shoot a pellet gun on the days when it is less windy; 2) only shoot when you are confident of your shot; 3) take your time – if you shoot & miss, the bird will become skittish and it will be difficult to get a future shot on him; 4) use vehicles or cheap camouflage sheets / tents to allow you to get closer to your target; and – most importantly – 5) Buy a QUALITY pellet rifle the first time.  Don’t even waste your money on the cheap pellet guns such as those at Walmart – you will only waste your money and your time and become extremely frustrated.  Go ahead and spend the money, especially if you plan on hosting birds for years to come.

The best times of day for shooting & trapping are in the morning when they are searching for nest sites.

Trapping Strategies:

English House Sparrows

There are many different traps that can be used in various situations to trap the non-native birds.  Unfortunately, HOSP are smart – you just need to be smarter.  Trapping requires you to consider the HOSP behaviors and use them against him.  For example, the HOSP has a tendency to hop, so trip levers on traps work well; also, they are very sensitive to any changes to their nests, so be careful when pulling one that you’ll be using later to camouflage traps.  Once a HOSP has committed to a nest and laid an egg, they aren’t likely to abandon, so use his commitment to the nest box and egg to set your trap (there is no 100% guarantee on this, but it works *most* of the time for me).  You’ll also find that the presence of other birds returning to the housing will help drive the HOSP back to his nest to protect it from them.  I have waited for 30-40 minutes after setting a nest box trap, with the HOSP sitting 30’ away and refusing to return to his cavity.  But when the martins / bluebirds flew back to their box, the HOSP immediately came back to defend his territory.

Below, I’ll discuss my three favorite traps and the strategies for using them.

  1.  The Universal Sparrow Trap, seen here is a simple, insert trap that fits inside most martin housing nest boxes.  You can catch both starlings and HOSP in this trap.  I only deploy this trap when one of them has become interested in a particular cavity.  I have found that the trick to using this trap is to ensure that the bird cannot see the wire walls of the trap.
    1. Cut 3 pieces of cardboard to the exact size of the inside walls of the cage.  Spray paint them with a flat black paint, let the cardboard dry, then slip a piece into each side of the trap and the third piece goes inside the back door.  When you slide the trap into the nest box, the bird will not be able to determine the dimensions of the cage and will more readily enter the trap.
    2. Another trick I use for the hard-to-catch, wary HOSP is to let them build their nest (it takes a lot of patience) and lay an egg.  This normally only takes a day or two.  Carefully remove the front of the nest (try to keep the tunnel shape of the front of the nest) and take out just the small nest cup, keeping as little of the cup as possible, but enough to hold the eggs, with the egg intact.  Place the nest cup containing the egg in the back of the trap and insert the trap back into the nest box.  Before closing the nest box door, try to rebuild the front of the nest around the front of the trap and then close your nest box door.  Keep a close eye on the trap entrance, as you don’t want to catch any curious native birds that may try to enter.  Using this method, I have usually trapped the HOSP within the first 30-60 minutes of placing the trap.
    3. After you catch the male or female that went in, if they didn’t break all the eggs, reset the trap and wait for the other.  Put your trapped HOSP in the repeating trap in the holding pen. She / he is *bait* for future sparrows, so give him / her food & water & keep them alive.
  2. The Repeating Bait Traps – my absolute favorite is the Blaine’s Repeating Sparrow Trap.  Repeating traps work best with the proper bait for the right season.  During the off-breeding, winter months when the birds are hungry, use cheap millet seed, French fries, chunks of white bread and / or popcorn.  During the breeding season, the only bait that will work is other HOSP in the holding pen.  Their strong mating instinct draws HOSP to either males or females in the trap – I’ve found that either sex of the species works equally well as bait.  This trap has 3 features that make me prefer it over any other trap on the market:1)  A small screen over the entrance into the holding pen that prevents the trapped birds from re-entering the trip-cage area.
    2)  A screen around the trip-cage area that prevents anything from escaping that may get into that part of the trap.
    3) A rubber flap over the retrieval door that prevents any birds from escaping past your arm when you reach in to retrieve them.

          Placement of repeating traps:

a)  If you have HOSP that are trying to nest in your martin housing, place the trap just below your martin house – off to the side 4-6 ft., up on a small platform that’s about 1-2 ft. high. Put a couple of feathers just outside the trap so the sparrow can ‘win’ by grabbing a couple and he’ll get cocky / comfortable around the trap.  Place more feathers, or some of the old materials from the last nest tear outs in the bait tray of your trap.

b)  You can also trap HOSP by placing your repeating trap near their favorite bush where they hang out.  Again, make sure you put it up on a small 2-3’ platform.

c) The end of the breeding season is a good time to catch the newly fledged HOSP that have been fledged by your neighbors.  If you keep 2-3 HOSP alive in your repeating trap holding pen and a cheap millet seed mix in the bait tray, you will find that the newly fledged HOSP will march right into the trap.

3.  Van Ert Trap – With 15 bluebird and tree swallow nest boxes at my site, this trap has been my most-used trap.  At $9.00 each, it is a bargain for all the headaches it has helped relieve.  This trap comes with a couple of sets of screws and is portable.  You can simply put the screws in the inside of your nest box door and when a HOSP invades, slide the trap on the door, set it and wait.
  1. I have actually had more of a problem with HOSP invading my bluebird housing than my martin housing, so if anyone is having an issue with HOSP and their martin housing, my first recommendation is to put up a bluebird box and set this trap.
    Attracting HOSP back to the box after inserting the trap:
    Make it desirable for HOSP to go in. Put a little Sparrow type nesting material over trip mechanism to hide it and make him think another bird might be building nest. Stick a long strand of grass out of the hole (makes him think another bird is trying to take “his” compartment and in he goes). Scatter some nice nest material on ground under the nest box near “his” hole (makes him want to add it to “his” nest).  Try purchasing small craft plastic eggs that look like Sparrow eggs.  Place egg on trip mechanism or in back where he can see it and have to go in after it (he knows it is not “his” egg and will want it gone).  All these things will allow you to catch him quickly.
  2. Once the HOSP is trapped in the nest box, I use a kitchen trash bag placed around the nest box, then open the front door and let him fly into the bag.  Once he settles in the bottom, close the bag and place him / her in the holding pen of your repeating bait trap.  The reason I use a kitchen trash bag is that I have tried just lifting the door slightly and reaching into the cavity, but given that I need some room to get into the nest box, it often leaves just enough room too for the HOSP to zoom out of the box and escape.
  3. As I have a neighbor whose barn is hosting HOSP and producing numerous vermin during the year, I’ve had to get smart about trapping them before they get to my nest boxes and kill my nesting native birds.  I have found that if I place a decoy nest box containing traps, directly in between his barn and my nest boxes, that it is usually the first (and last) stop for the HOSP.  I’ve been using this strategy for 2 years now and I have trapped 80% of the HOSP that come here in this trapping box.  This is a two-chamber nest box trap. The door on the left is a trap door for Trios that was sent to me by someone on the PMCA forum a while back. I just mounted it to the front of this ‘box’ that I screwed together out of left over wood. The other chamber has a Van Ert trap in it.  On the back are 2 retrieval doors, 1 for each chamber.
  4. I had a problem with the blue birds and tree swallows insisting on trying to nest here, so I finally closed down the box on the right and cut a smaller hole out of a sour cream lid, then duct-taped it over the larger hole on the door.  I used a 1 3/8″ Forstner bit to cut the hole in the plastic lid, but as the bluebirds were still squeezing in, I adjusted the hole down another 1/16″ by sliding the lid over the door edge. That did the trick!  So, the net effect is 1 5/16″ hole. Since then, I’ve only caught HOSP in this trap. The roof rests on top of the two T-posts and to keep it from tipping, I have 2 screws on each side, just far enough apart to let the trap slide down the t-posts.  It was cheap, but it is very, very effective.

In-Cavity Trapping:

When sparrows have started nest building, only the female sleeps in the bird house.
Knowing this information, you can go out in the dark of night, quietly sneak up to the bird house and block the entrance.  Place a plastic garbage bag over the bird house and flush the female sparrow out.  Insert a nestbox trap the next morning, and when the male returns to check out the nest, he will be trapped.

Trapping Starlings:

As Starlings can be kept out of martin housing by the deployment of Starling Resistant Entrance Holes (SREH) and are not able to enter the 1.5” holes on bluebird housing, I don’t have much of a problem with them anymore.  I do have a few that will stop by and try to invade my woodpecker nest cavities and my wood duck boxes, however, they are quickly dispatched by shooting and / or use of the Van Ert trap as described above.  I will be discussing more on Starling trapping in my next article.

Please visit Chuck’s Purple Martin page for more information and strategies & tips for trapping & killing the non-native birds:

http://chuckspurplemartinpage.com/starspar.htm

Plans for a Do It Yourself Starling Trap are available here:

http://www.entrancesbysandy.com/id239.htm

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Didactic Fiction: Propaganda or Art?

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Aya Katz

Today I came across this quote in a Facebook posting:  “Some major writers have a huge impact, like Ayn Rand, who to my mind is a lousy fiction writer because her writing has no compassion and virtually no humor. She has a philosophical and economical message that she is passing off as fiction, but it really isn’t fiction at all.”  You can find this quote in context here: Interview with Theodore Sturgeon.

Clearly Sturgeon doesn’t like Ayn Rand’s philosophy and her writing, and we could just take this quote to mean that and nothing more. But is he saying anything about fiction that we should pay attention to? Is it true that the moment fiction becomes didactic it ceases to be fiction?

1. What is Fiction?

Fiction is often paired with “fact” when looking for semantic opposites. In this context, something is fiction if it is “not true.” For instance, it turns out that the well known story about George Washington and the cherry is not true. Hence, it is fiction.

When it comes to historical fiction, it is important that readers distinguish the known facts from the made-up parts of the story. When it comes to writing non-fiction biographies, it is important that historians not rely on fiction as if it were fact.

But that’s not all that people mean when they talk about the difference between fiction and non-fiction. There is also the way that it reads. A factual account is often dry and boring, like most of the things that are printed in the newspaper. When we read fiction, we experience an emotional response to the drama that unfolds before us, as if it were reality. So in that sense, fiction feels more real than non-fiction, because it affects us directly as if it were happening in front of us. Fiction appeals to the emotions. Fiction entertains. Fiction moves us.

The difference between a newspaper story and a short story, an encyclopedia entry and a character sketch, an essay and a chapter from a novel is often the immediacy of our reaction to the material.

2. Didactic Fiction as a Type of Fiction

Not all fiction aims to change our mind. Not all fiction is about ideas. But didactic fiction is a subgenre of general fiction. It is no less fictional for being didactic.

Examples of well known didactic works of fiction include Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Man Without a Country, Les Miserables,  Oliver Twist. Why do I think these are all didactic? Each of them seems to have a moral or an agenda: slavery is bad, blind patriotism is a moral necessity, the poor should not have to pay for bread, and it is not good to apprentice little boys against their will. I may be exaggerating a little about what the exact moral is in each case, but clearly these works of fiction explore social ideas and ideals and support a particular viewpoint.

     

As long as the reader shares the ideals of the writer, then there is no problem reading didactic fiction and enjoying it as fiction. The problem usually arises when the ideals of the reader and the writer are at odds. It is then that suddenly the charge of “propaganda” comes to the fore, and a perfectly entertaining and moving work of fiction is disdained, because it is “not really fiction”. Or not really art. Or just too obvious in its bias.

3. Common Complaints Against Didactic Fiction

One common complaint against didactic fiction is that events are contrived so as to create a particular bias. Abusive masters and abusive employers can make a good case against slavery and apprenticeship, whereas a different book with a different bias might have shown the master or employer as benevolent. Being saved and pardoned by a friendly priest may purchase a soul for God, but where was that priest or God when all that was needed was enough money to buy a loaf of bread? Of course, you’re going to miss your country while under solitary confinement. We miss our country every time we go abroad. But… that does not mean we might not feel a need to stand up to the current administration when it is unjust.

Every story has more than one side. Every ideological movement has opponents. We should not judge the literary merit of a work by the political bias of its author. Most literary novels do have an ideological bias. Being able to read a work written by someone you disagree with and still value its ability to move the reader is one measure of your merit as a literary critic.

 4. The Novels of Ayn Rand: Not All Equally Didactic

We the Living is about what life was like in the Soviet Union in the teens and twenties. It is a mostly factual account, though, of course, it tells its story through fictional characters who have their own dreams, loves and lusts. Is there a special Objectivist bias to this novel? I doubt it. She wrote it long before she invented Objectivism.

Is this a novel with a romantic outlook on life? Sure. Though it ends badly for the heroine, we yearn with her for the brilliant, significant life that she longs to have. Lacking in compassion? For whom? Is there some reason why we shouldn’t feel compassion for Kira? If you read this book, and you don’t feel that, then it must be because you could not leave your ideological baggage at the door.

The Fountainhead is a much more didactic book than We the Living. But the cause that it champions is the artist’s right to self-expression, even in the face of a market that is closed to  new ideas and products. Hardly sounds like the message of someone only interested in industralism or the rights of the wealthy, does it? Howard Roark refuses gainful employment as an architect in order to maintain his own high standard for exactly how buildings are to be designed.  If the reader cannot feel compassion for the penniless young idealist who would rather work as day laborer in a stone quarry than change one line of his design, then the problem is not with the writing.

Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s most didactic — and possibly least well edited book. Arguably, the long stretches of pure philosophy, such as John Galt’s speech, are in and of themselves “non-fiction”. But they are embedded in a fictional text that is every bit as emotionally moving as any thriller or detective novel or love story. In fact, the book has elements from all three. And again, it’s not that you don’t feel compassion when reading this book. I think for most critics, it’s who you feel compassion for that is at issue.

5. Perspective Shifting as the Responsibility of the Reader

We all have our own biases. It’s okay. It’s nothing to apologize for. Wherever we happen to be standing, that is how we get our perspective on life. But the art of reading critically involves the ability to temporarily shift perspective.

Great authors also come with their own built-in bias. We read Dickens’ description of Fagin and feel, quite correctly, that there is an anti-semitic bias at play here. But a good reader puts that aside and does not condemn the work just because of the author’s bias.

By the same token, we may feel a distaste for the bias against the bourgeoisie in Victor Hugo’s writing. But we don’t have to be against the middle class in order to appreciate the poignancy of the story.

When it comes to Ayn Rand, many people have trouble shedding their bias long enough to sample and enjoy the writing. In so doing, they are also shutting themselves off from an understanding of people who think differently from themselves.

The essence of compassion is being able to feel for another person, even though you have never walked in his shoes. It means feeling what others feel and suffering along with them. Rand is very good at arousing compassion for those who have been wronged by the system — whether that system is the communism of the Soviet Union, the closed-minded boards of directors or businessmen in the United States in the thirties and forties, or the futuristic bureaucracy depicted in Atlas Shrugged. If a reader or critic cannot feel for those individuals because they don’t fall into the right political camp, then the fault is not with Rand’s writing.

Reading a book written from a different perspective from our own is like watching a nature documentary. One week it’s about rabbits, and we root for the rabbits and despise all the predators. But the next week the documentary is about wolves. And we feel just as much for the wolf as he pursues his next meal as we did for the rabbit when he was trying to elude him. That is the true magic of compassion.

If you are incapable of shifting your perspective, then not only do you lack true compassion, you are also unfit to be a literary critic. The whole point of literary criticism is to distinguish what is being said from how it is said. If you can’t do that, you need to work on your perspective shifting.

Didactic fiction is a type of fiction. It is effective if it moves people. The writing of Ayn Rand  has a “huge impact”, because it does just that!

Copyright 2013 Aya Katz

 Books by Aya Katz

         

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Theodosia and the Pirates

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Giveaway ends July 21, 2013.

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西奧多西婭和海盜

Posted on April 22, 2013 by admin

ChineseTheoQ

西奧多西婭伯爾阿爾斯於1812年12月31日登上愛國者號船，從來就再沒有人見過她。她是淹死在海裡了呢還是被海盜抓去了？過去200年有很多關於這件事的推測。在這個歷史愛情故事中，西奧多西婭和強悍的船長讓·拉菲特一起並肩與英國以及腐敗的聯邦官員還有路易斯安那州的政府官員們戰鬥。雖然新奧爾良之戰和對英國的戰爭很大程度上都是由於拉菲特的貢獻而贏得，可是在一次遠征西班牙的時候搶了西奧多西婭的父親伯爾的船和物資供應的同一支腐敗的政府力量，卻把讓·拉菲特拉菲特的船隻和貨沒收了。亞歷山大·漢密爾頓創建的國稅局，更熱衷於對公民徵稅，而不是與敵人進行戰鬥。海軍派軍艦攻擊獨立私艦，使國家面對侵略者無力抵抗。儘管這樣，拉菲特還是提供火藥，打火石和訓練有素的特殊砲兵部隊，幫助安德魯·傑克遜將軍打敗英國。而麥迪遜總統卻只給了他一個空頭赦免。伯爾能夠讓總統改變想法嗎？抑或拉菲特和西奧多西婭將被迫從西班牙拿錢資助他們進一步的冒險？一個男人和一個女人之間的愛情是什麼？激情和慾望比尊敬和愛戴更重要嗎？什麼是愛國主義？戰爭的費用如何支付？我們能不能愛一個擯棄我們的國家，與此同時又厭棄另一個愛我們的國家？請閱讀’西奧多西婭和海盜’你會得出答案。

ChineseTheodosiaCover

 

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Theodosia and the Pirates by Aya Katz

Theodosia and the Pirates

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Feeding Purple Martins During Inclement Weather

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Kathy

In late March 2011, I was staring out my window watching the falling rain and sleet and the thermometer that was falling even faster.  I was also keeping watch on my eight purple martins that had arrived 10 days earlier than in years past and wondered how I would ever get them through the bad weather that was predicted for the next 8 days. There would certainly be no flying insects available on which they could feed in that cold, wet weather.  I had read the stories on the PMCA forum about how people had trained their martins to accept supplemental feeding of crickets and eggs but I was torn over the whole “nature taking its course” and praying, or helping them.

As I watched their wings droop further, it suddenly became very clear for me; either make the effort and try to feed them or grab a bucket and pick up the dead ones in a few days.  There was absolutely no way I was going to be able to do the latter.  So I grabbed a handful of plastic picnic spoons, a plate of crickets, gathered up my determination and stood in the middle of my colony with mud up to my ankles and sleet in my face and flipped over 40 crickets to my sad-looking martins.  Suddenly, the magic happened and I have never again had to worry about having to pick up buckets full of dead martins in my yard when Mother Nature plays a cruel trick on our migrating martins.

If you’re interested in providing supplemental feeding yourself, here are some pointers how to train your martins, based on my experiences as well as from the other experienced landlords that worked with me and encouraged me along the way.

First, be prepared.  A lot of us know about when our martins will arrive and what the average weather is like during those months.  My first arrivals come during March, so by February, I know that I should have approximately 5000 crickets in my freezer (I order from ReptileFood.com).  An adult martin can eat 40-50 large (1”) crickets a day, so base your cricket supply on that estimate times the number of days of expected bad weather.  I usually have a box or two of the cheap, plastic picnic spoons in my pantry as well.  When the weather drops below 45-50 degrees, or there is constant rain then there are no flying insects on which the martins can feed.  You’ll know they are stressed by observing their physical appearance.  Usually they are fluffed out and have very droopy wings.

During the first day or two of bad weather, they may not take the food, but by the third day, it’s time to start flipping.  Try to pick the warmest time of the day and the least windy.  Position yourself so that you can flip the crickets up high and in front of your martins.  Do not flip the crickets directly *at* the birds as that will cause them to fly away from you.  I only flipped one cricket at a time as this was their first introduction to crickets and I didn’t want to waste any until I saw the first one take one.  I only had to flip 40 to get them started, but I have heard other landlords have had to flip over 100 to get the ball rolling.

I also called out a word (much like training your dog) every time I flipped a cricket.  You’ll know why later.  After the first martin went after a cricket and returned to her perch, the others slowly started joining her and swirling around in the rain as I flipped over 200 crickets to them.  It takes a lot of energy that they can’t afford to waste at these critical times, to fly & catch a cricket.  So my next goal was to move them to “tray feeding” so they wouldn’t waste their limited energy.  Tray feeding is a different way of feeding for a purple martin as they usually catch their food on the fly.  As they all slowly circled, grabbing flipped crickets, I started flipping the crickets up on my rooftop.  Some would finally land and grab the food that fell there.  Some of it bounced down onto a tray just below the edge of my roof and they all started landing there and eating the food that bounced off my makeshift ‘tray’.  I also added scrambled eggs in with the offerings (crickets can get expensive when you’re trying to feed 20-40 birds).  I first had to flip the egg pieces in the air to get them used to accepting egg, then I could add it to the tray where they could eat it later.

A female approaches my “tray” full of crickets and adult male martins.

Figure 1- My feeding “tray” loaded with crickets on my deck.

During subsequent feedings, I would prepare the eggs and crickets and call the martins out of their housing to the feeder, using my special word that I had used during training.  It worked every time.

This season we once again started another 8 days of bad weather at the end of March.  The first day the weather snapped down cold, a male martin flew right up to me, squawking at me.  I knew that he was one that remembered the drill from 2 years ago.  I fed over 6000 crickets and 5 dozen eggs over the course of those 8 days to 22 martins.  I did end up losing 4 of them, but I could never be sure if those 4 were “mine” or were migrants, or they simply died of old age.  But I ended up pulling the rest of my martins through those cold, long, miserable days and I can’t tell you how happy I am about that.

If you have never tried to feed your birds, I encourage you to try it.  My best advice is to be persistent and keep trying.  You already know what is the worst that can happen, so you can’t lose anything by trying.  My martins bring me great joy every year.  I figure providing them with food during desperate times is the least I can do to repay them.

 

March 2013 – 2nd day of snow – migrants and residents huddled on the porches trying to stay warm.  Notice the martins on the porch with drooping wings

 My Friend, Tony from Olpe, KS feeding his purple martins – more up close & personal.  🙂

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Enjoying Nature: It’s Springtime — Almost!

Posted on April 12, 2013 by admin

Flowers6We thought that spring had finally come.  The flowers were blooming, the air was warm. The birds were chirping and the small leaflets were starting to bud on the trees.

The blossoms of every flower seemed to reach out and open toward the sky, begging for sunlight.

Flowers2

 Cultivated flowers and wild flowers alike rejoiced in the warmth.

Flowers3 (2)

Even the lowly dandelion was happy.

Flowers3

But then everything changed. Suddenly the sun was obscured by clouds and the wind picked up. Even the lowliest flowers could feel it. (BloomWindDandelion)

The tiniest flowers of all trembled in the wind.

Soon there was rain coming down from the sky and after that the world turned cold.

Maybe spring has begun, but it’s still a work in progress.

 

Copyright 2013 Aya Katz

Products for Spring Gardening

   

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SEO for Your Book Title

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Aya Katz

There was a time when I very innocently believed that the best title would be a title that no one would ever have thought of prior to reading my book. But today with the internet and search engines dominating the market, that does not seem to be the case.

Look and see what Google dredged up when I tried to use Vacuum County, the title of one of my novels, as a search term!

Since then, I have become a little more savvy in choosing titles. Here is a video that explains my thinking on this topic.

My latest book, Theodosia and the Pirates, is beginning to dominate the search phrase “Theodosia and the Pirates”. For instance, this morning’s search on DuckDuckGo, put my book above the Wikipedia article about Theodosia Burr Alston, the historical person who is the subject of my book.

DuckDuckGo

I like to use DuckDuckGo rather than Google, because Google tries to find out who you are and then gear its search results to what you are interested in. But when we are trying to gauge the effectiveness of our search engine optimization strategy, we don’t want to see results geared specifically toward us. Instead, we want to see what the average person would see. DuckDuckGo does not care who is searching, so their results are pretty objective.

But the problem is, not everybody has discovered DuckDuckGo as a search engine. So sometimes it helps to open an “incognito” window on your Chrome browser and get a more objective reading from Google. Here is what I found on Google while going incognito this morning.

GoogleTheodosia

The Google results are pretty good, too. My old book trailer ranks highest, followed by the Amazon listing for the paperback, followed by the Kindle edition, followed by the Wikipedia entry on the real Theodosia. And even better: after the Wikipedia entry comes my blog post from the CS blog.

Of course, ranking for a particular long tail keyword will not in and of itself guarantee you sales, particularly if no one is searching for that keyword. But it is definitely a start.

For more book marketing tips, please consider the following articles.

Articles about How to Market Your Book

http://www.inverteda.com/blog/what-you-can-do-help-market-your-book

https://www.createspace.com/en/community/people/AyaKatz/blog/2013/04/04/the-talk-at-the-texas-county-museum-of-art-and-history

https://www.createspace.com/en/community/people/AyaKatz/blog/2013/03/08/genre-is-about-readers-not-books

http://aya-katz.hubpages.com/hub/Searching-for-a-Better-Search-Engine

Books by Aya Katz

     

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Marketing Tips for Authors with A Small Press: How to Market Your Book

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Aya Katz

Inverted-ALogoCongratulations! A small press has agreed to publish your book. You may have started out with Writer’s Market, and you may have gone to all the big name publishers first, and they may have turned you down without ever asking to read a sample of your book. But reluctantly you turned to lesser known presses, and finally one has accepted you.

The process of typesetting and proofing is over. You are happy with the cover. The book looks great. And then when it is published, nothing happens. No review in The New York Times Book Review section, no mention anywhere that you can see. Nobody buys your book, and it’s almost as if it had never been published at all.

Some new authors get disillusioned with the small press that published them, and they start to regret their choice. They wonder if they should have waited indefinitely for a big named press, or alternatively, whether they should have published the book themselves.

Here is what a small press does for you:

1) Typesets your book.

2) Creates a cover.

3) Gives you an ISBN number that identifies your book as belonging with the other books published by that press.

4) In some cases, a small press will also create a book trailer for you. (Inverted-A Press does that.)

5. Circulates your book among small press reviewers and online reviewers.

If you can do all that yourself, then perhaps you do not need the services of a small press after all. But the time to decide that is before you sign the contract. After you sign with a small press, and after they have put in all that work to publish your book, then you are partnered for life, and the more things that you can do to help publicize and sell your own book, the better.

In the next few sections, I will share with you a few tips about marketing your book, some of which apply before publication, and some of which work very well after.

1. Choosing the Title of Your Book with SEO in Mind

If you have a non-fiction title, search engine optimization of that title is easy. Just describe your subject matter briefly. If you are writing about finite math, then Finite Math makes a great title. If you are writing about how to potty train your child, then How to Potty Train is a wonderful, self-explanatory title. If you want to teach the reader how to declutter the house, then How to Declutter just might work in attracting readers straight from Google who want to buy your book.

Fiction titles are harder. Watch the video I’ve embedded below, and then I will summarize the lessons for you in linguistic terms.

To make a title search engine friendly:

1. Avoid opaque collocations whose meaning only becomes clear after one has read the book. (Example: Vacuum County.)

2. Use proper nouns, as what they refer to is more fixed. (Examples: Kaifeng, Theodosia.)

3. Use general terms that describe the actual subject of your book. (Example: Pirates.)

4. Use phrases that bring to mind exactly what your book is about to those people who know about your subject. Example: (Theodosia and the Pirates.)

2. Three Tips About Publicizing Your Book.

A big name publisher has an advertising budget and may also send you on a national book tour at its expense. A small press cannot do that. You, personally, also may not be able to afford to do that. But there are some things that you can do for your book yourself that will not cost you anything.

Watch the video, and then I will summarize it.

In order to help your small press to publicize your book:

1) Keep a blog in which you mention your book often. The blog can be related to the subject matter of your book, or it can be autobiographical.

2) Make local appearances. Arrange a book signing at the the local bookstore. Give a talk at the library or in a meeting of a civic organization.

3) Make appearances long distance via Skype. Identify groups who are interested in the subject matter of your book and get them to invite to give a live talk with a Q & A session through a Skype appearance.

3. Get Your Book Reviewed

Watch the video embedded below, and then I will summarize it for you.

To summarize:

I. Get some reviews!


Getting some actual reviews means being realistic and not aiming for the moon.

II. Get reviews from people who write reviews.

Your reviewers should be people who are already in the habit of reviewing books. Find them on blogs through search and on Amazon through their own reviews of other books.

III Get reviews from highly ranked reviewers.

Since the more people read the review of your book, the better it will be for you, you must find highly ranked reviewers. But, conversely, since readers help to determine rank, once you do have a review, help out the reviewer by asking people to read and rank that review.

4. Conclusion

If you have been published by a small press, that partnership is for life. Unless your book goes out of print, the contract between you and your small press is valid forever. Unlike traditional presses, most small presses using print on demand technology will never allow a title to go out of print. Keeping that in mind, the best thing to do is to join forces with your small press and help it to sell books. And it does not cost a fortune to do that.

All it takes is work and thought and determination!

Books by Aya Katz

   

Other Inverted-A Press Titles

   

 

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The Talk at the Texas County Museum of Art and History

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Can You Forgive? Another song from The Debt Collector

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Aya Katz

“Can You Forgive” is a very important song that appears in the third act of The Debt Collector, a libertarian musical composed by Daniel Carter and written by me.

Victoria Trestrail, playing the role of Lottie Lark with great effect, sings the song in the demo below. Lottie is apologizing to her landlady, Mrs. Hauser.

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The second time “Can You Forgive” is taken up, it is when Blood realizes he has wronged Lottie by taking her children. So after experiencing what it was like to ask for forgiveness, Lottie soon receives a heartfelt apology from the Debt Collector himself. Kelly Clear gives a grand performance as a penitent Blood.

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Apologizing does not come naturally to everyone, even when they do realize that they have been wrong. Siren, the social worker, requires some coaching before she catches on.

But even with coaching, Siren is not a quick study.

Eventually, though, Siren finds it in her heart to apologize to Blood. Erin Royall Carlson plays Siren as she sings this tender mea culpa.

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Even though this song is called “Can You Forgive”, it is not about how to forgive. It is about how to apologize. The reason the words are “can you forgive” is because forgiveness is not something to be taken for granted or demanded. Sometimes people can’t forgive, and the person who apologizes needs to accept this. An apology does not give you some kind of automatic right to forgiveness.

So often today, when one person owes another an apology, there is this assumption that if only a formal apology were to issue, then forgiveness is a foregone conclusion. But true forgiveness is a spontaneous reflex that comes of its own — we can’t feel true forgiveness unless the situation is right. One of the prerequisites to a genuine, spontaneous impulse of forgiveness is a genuine, spontaneous display of contrition. And sometimes even that is not enough. And that’s okay.

People often apologize for the wrong reasons. Somebody may be giving them a hard time, and the apology is seen as a way to appease that person. Or they want something, and the apology is their way to get what they want.

By the same token, many displays of forgiveness are also fake. People have been told that anger is bad for their health. They are afraid of getting cancer. They don’t want to be bad people. Many religions even put pressure on believers to forgive when the other person has not repented. So people pretend to forgive, because they are ashamed or afraid to admit that they cannot.

In the many verses of “Can You Forgive”, different characters in the play, at different points in the action, suddenly come to spontaneously apologize, once they realize how wrong they have been. They do not apologize in order to get something. They do not apologize in order to make an impression on someone else. They apologize because they realize that they have been wrong, and they need to get this off their chest.

Only Siren, the social worker, does not know how to apologize. She keeps making excuses instead. So Carl Lark, the welfare father, teachers her how to apologize.

Apologizing is a very ancient practice. It predates humans and human language. Chimpanzees apologize, too.

A chimpanzee apology consists of two parts:

1) I’m sorry I hurt you

2) Please forgive me.

A human apology, because there are so many misunderstandings among humans, and because the way we hurt each other can be so complicated, is often somewhat more complex. Here is what it consists of in The Debt Collector:

1) I now realize that I hurt you and I was wrong.

2) Here is a description of what I did and how it hurt you.

3) I am sorry and ashamed that I behaved this badly.

4) I really wish you could forgive me.

5) However, you don’t have to forgive me. You owe me nothing.

The last part, about not owing anyone forgiveness, would have gone without saying before certain religions and certain social  and psychological theories shifted things around and made the victims of every wrongful act feel guilty for resenting what was done to them. One of the aims of The Debt Collector is to undo that trend.

 

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Prevent Breast Cancer by Wearing a Wire Free Bra

Posted on January 14, 2013 by Jaime

Not only are wire free bras known as healthier and more comfortable, but also bras with wire are especially thought to be linked to, if not a cause of breast cancer. Some people say bras have nothing to do with breast cancer. While there are many possibilities for the cause of cancer, it could be possible that one is bras that are too tight, or bras with wires. The tightness of bras, the temperature of the breasts, and the wiring inside wire bras are all thought to contribute to causing cancer.

Hanes Comfort Support Wire Free Bra White SHanes Comfort Support Wire Free Bra White S

Tightness of Bras

Bras that are too tight are known to help cancer grow. The tightness prevents the body from letting out dangerous toxins that cause cancer. Many women tend to wear the wrong bra size (according to the bra industry). Wiring in bras or just tight bras alone keep the lymph from flowing in the breasts. There are many lymph pathways and lymph nodes (organs that filter or trap foreign particles/help the immune system function properly) under and in between the breasts. The lymph fluid washes waste materials and other toxins out, away from the breasts, while many bras don’t allow that action. Then, toxins can start gathering in the breast and cause cancer to develop. Bras that are too tight do not allow the body to clean itself normally, to get rid of cancer cells and toxins that tend to cling to fatty tissues such as the breast.
Bali Women’s Bali Comfort Revolution Wire Free,Nude,40DBali Women’s Bali Comfort Revolution Wire Free,Nude,40D

Temperature of Breasts

Wearing bras, especially wire bras, due to the fact they tend to be tighter and stronger to hold up the breasts, can be connected to cancer by causing higher temperatures in breast tissue as well as higher levels of the hormone called prolactin. Both of those can cause cancer to form. So, to keep the temperatures of the breasts lower, wire free bras are definitely the better choice. They are specially created to keep moisture and sweat away which in turn keeps temperatures lower. Also, there is more of a choice of finding a material that will not close off, being too tight, in wire free bras. Finally, wire free bras are available in different quality fabrics that are considered above average. Therefore, they are a lot more expandable and elastic, giving your breasts more air and room than being squished and bundled up. They are designed to let women do intense, up-beat sports and better able to move freely, able to totally concentrate on their games and not worry about wiring to get in the way.

Lily of France Women’s Light Lift Wire Free Bra, Cornflower Blue, 34BLily of France Women’s Light Lift Wire Free Bra, Cornflower Blue, 34B

Wiring in bras with wires

Finally, places often offer wire free bras with double-layered support, rather than using wire bras if there is a need of more support. Wire bras come to a point where they are uncomfortable or that eventually the wire gets messed up or wears down. Those are all linked to problems that can cause breast cancer. To be on the safe side, stick with wire free bras and discover the benefits of wire free bras. For example, to help keep the flow between your breasts, you may want to choose to wire free bras that fasten in the front.

 

 

 

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Buy Reach Gentle Gum Care Woven Dental Floss Online

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Medora Trevilian

Sometimes we become accustomed to finding a personal hygiene product at our local drugstore or grocery store. Then one day it disappears. Did they stop making it, we wonder? Or has this particular store just stopped carrying it for some reason? We wait, we ask around, and finally we realize that even though the manufacturer still makes the product, all the local retailers have stopped carrying it.

What do we do then? We go and look for that product online.  That’s what happened to me and to thousands of other shoppers with regard to the Johnson & Johnson Reach Gentle Gum Care Dental Floss. Once readily available and recommended to us by our dentists, it has become a hard-to-find item.

    

Don’t feel bad if this has happened to you. Not everyone who uses the woven dental floss made by Johnson & Johnson called Reach and labeled “Gentle Gum Care” has bad gums. Some use it for many other reasons. Here is what one Amazon customer has to say:

I went to replenish my stash of the woven floss, and I couldn’t find it anywhere in stores or online. I waited a few weeks and tried again, and still nothing. I panicked and called J&J, and they assured me the product hasn’t been discontinued. Whew! There was some sort of production disruption a few months ago, and it’s still not back in production. They claim they should be shipping soon, but don’t have a date. They’d better ship soon – I only have one package left. I am a twice a day flosser, and would be miserable if I couldn’t get this any more. It’s the best. You’d think that a woven floss would just be for people with space between their teeth, but this is the best floss for tightly packed teeth. ALL other flosses shred or get stuck between my teeth (unwaxed, waxed, Glide, Ultraclean, etc – I’ve tried them all). I wouldn’t have picked up this one on my own, since my gums are in great shape, but my dentist recommended it for my super-tight teeth, and I’m amazed at how pleasant it is to use. I’ve been using it for years, and can’t wait to buy it again.

We all deserve to have the very best products available to help maintain our health and personal hygiene. It does not matter whether the local store carries them or not. Thankfully the woven floss manufactured by Johnson & Johnson under the Reach trademark and sold for Gentle Gum Care is still available and all is right with the world!

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