another starling encounter!!!

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Guest

So yesterday I was on cloud 9. First egg of the year and all. Then today I look outside and see a Starling bringing nesting material into a compartment on my S&K barn that was previously occupied by a ASY pair. Yesterday the nest looked almost complete. Imagine how panicked I was...could the pair have been injured..??? A dead martin inside??? My mind was in a state. I looked over to my home made "cob-job" repeating nest trap that I made and to my AMAZEMENT, there was a female starling in the holding cage!!!
Now you have to understand how AMAZED I was. I made this thing out of scrap wood, a plastic flower pot, a bamboo perching stick, a paint mixer (the freebie thin wood things they give when you buy paint) and wire. My husband said it looked, "like a blind man built it." Personally, I told him I knew (as a former Veterans hospital nurse) many blind men that would have done a much better job...but thank you anyway.
Back to my story. The male WOULD NOT GO IN the trap!!! :evil: :evil: He would fly over to the female and pick up nest material and go back to the house and in he would go. I could almost hear him thinking, "WHy is this chick so lazy? Why won't she help me?" Well I got tired of waiting for him to go in the trap and lowered the housing and rigged up the trap door and string and withing 5 min of putting the house back up...PRESTO BINGO OHHHH YEAAAAHHHHHHH!!! :lol: :lol: SUCCESS!
Thats susan 5, starlings 0
PS- my husband owes me dinner-He never thought the trap would work!
Guest

Good for you! I wanna see pix of the trap! :)

All I've caught in mine is sparrows (I'm not complaining, mind you), but the starlings have avoided it like the plague :cry: I have four starlings hanging around. What kind of trap can you use on the house itself for starlings?
Guest

Well since its a plastic house none of the insert traps will work. So I cut a small hole in the plastic off to one side of the entrance. Small enough for one of their plastic snaps to go in it...you know, the ones that you use to put the house together. Then I took a piece of plastic (actually a portion of an old cling plate from one of the troyers I put a tunnel on) but you can use any kind of stiff plastic that wont bend...even one of the plastic porch dividers. (with the porch divider I put paper labels to make it white-as they are black- so it doesn't look so obvious) Then attached the plastic to the house with the tab. Then just tied a small string to the other corner of the plastic-ran that through the upper vent hole which are on the top of the doors and ran it down to my patio. When you pull the string the door swings up. Take care that it doesn't swing back down in the excitement.
Its weird-when they are trapped, they don't flutter about like you would think. They get really quiet.
They get even quieter when I take them OUT. and I mean OUT! :wink:
Guest

Oh, okay, I think I get it. Thanks :)
JoLita
Posts: 44
Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:21 pm
Location: Missouri/East Prairie
Martin Colony History: I have been a landlord for 24 years.
Three gourd racks with total of 28 super gourds.
2021 - 28 nesting pairs

I got starling troubles too. This morning I saw 2 starlings going in one of my excluder gourds with the SREH. I was just sick. :-( These starlings have been guarding this gourd for 3 weeks but never entered. I had a pair of martins staying in there too. I didn't have time to check the gourd this morning-had to get to work. This afternoon I checked and there was a lot of starling nesting material and I found my male martin DEAD. His poor little head had been pecked to pieces. I put in a trap but no luck. Maybe in the morning I'll get at least one. I also just finished, tonight, the S&S Repeating Trap just like Lilyrose's. Lilyrose you inspired me! It has taken me two weeks to build it but now it's finished. I just hope those evil starlings and sparrows get in there. There will be no mercy for them!!!!! :twisted:
Jo Lita
Donnie Hurdt MN
Posts: 1723
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2004 11:14 pm
Location: North Prairie, MN

I would think that the reason they get quiet would be that when the trap is sprung it gets quite dark in the compartment. :)
PMCA member and Martin fanatic....
2011 A pair of subbies fledged three young but none returned in 2012 :-(
2015 One Pair of subbies came and stayed a few nits but got chased away by Bluebirds and Tree swallows. :-(
2017 0ne pair of subbies nested and fledged 4 young
2018 Tree Swallows AGAIN chased away any martins that wanted to nest :evil:
2019 Same old story................ :-(
Guest

JoLita wrote: Lilyrose you inspired me! It has taken me two weeks to build it but now it's finished. I just hope those evil starlings and sparrows get in there. There will be no mercy for them!!!!! :twisted:
Jo Lita
JoLita, that's so sweet of you to say. You made my day :) It took me about two weeks when it was all said and done, but it works like a charm if you can get the birds to go to it. Happy trapping :)
Guest

Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin:
Louise Chambers
Site Admin
Posts: 6208
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 1:07 pm
Location: Corpus Christi, TX

JoLita,

The repeating trap will surely help you - good job!

Also, how high do you have the porches mounted on your Excluder gourds? The mfg's suggested location, which worked for him, may be too low. If that's where you put your porches, try raising them up to almost flush with the bottom of the entrance, or not more than 1/4 inch below it.

We've had good results here with modified Excluder entrances on porches, and with crescents. "Our" starlings have not breached a properly sized and mounted SREH yet, though I know some TX landlords have had failures. Check your porches, and now that you have a trap, you should have no more problems. good luck!

Louise
Julio
Posts: 876
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 8:37 am
Location: Pembroke Pines, FL

Ha great to hear Susan, i need to build a repeater sometime this year. Ill rid my ares of these vermin.
"We can judge the heart of man by his treatment of animals." - Immanual Kant.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JulioPrado954/posts
JoLita
Posts: 44
Joined: Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:21 pm
Location: Missouri/East Prairie
Martin Colony History: I have been a landlord for 24 years.
Three gourd racks with total of 28 super gourds.
2021 - 28 nesting pairs

Thanks Louise,

I did put the porches on where the manufacturer suggested and now I realize (too late) they are too low. I will move them up closer to flush with the entrance. I put a trap into that gourd and I barely caught one starling this morning. The trap did not work properly. The starling got in but could not get out. I could see his ugly head poking out of the gourd. I captured him and put him in the trap for others to see. This is ugly of me but I want him to suffer!

Jo Lita
djmains
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:24 am
Location: Indiana/Shoals

I read your article and I would realy like to see pictures of this thing you built. I realy got a good laugh reading you post.
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