Problems with Starlings

[ltwalsh]

Hi All:

I am new to the forum and hopefully a new Martin landlord.

I live in Poplar Grove, IL which is about 75 miles NW of Chicago and only 7 miles from the Wisconsin boarder.

I put up a new house on Thursday April 2 and then started playing my Martin CD on Friday Morning. By Saturday April 4, I had a Martin flying around the house and checking out the CD player (pictures attached). He came back again on Sunday and On Monday he returned with a female partner. They stayed the night Monday night and Tuesday night, but Wednesday AM I witnessed a Starling chase them out of the house and I have not seen them since.

Since I am new, I have a few questions and could use some help.
1. Will my pair come back?
2. How can I get rid of the Starlings?
3. Any other suggestions on how to get martins to my house?
4. Based on my location everything I read says it's still early arrival for Martins is that true.

I am excited about watching Martins this summer and adding new homes. I hope you can help me get rid of the Starlings.

Best Regards,

Larry Walsh Sr.
Poplar Grove, IL

[LarryMelcher/KY]

Larry,
Do you have round entrance holes on your martin housing? It is hard for some to make the switch to 100% SREH, but that helps tremendously. The other non-native species you need to watch for is the English House Sparrows.

If you commit to reserving your martin nests for Purple Martins only, it will increase your chances of attracting and keeping your first pair of martins. Once you attract your first pair, they will bring in the rest for you.

Sounds like you have a great chance to attract martins. You are in a good martin rich area and just keep running the Starlings off by shooting or trapping.

Good Luck !!

[ltwalsh]

Larry,
Do you have round entrance holes on your martin housing? It is hard for some to make the switch to 100% SREH, but that helps tremendously. The other non-native species you need to watch for is the English House Sparrows.

If you commit to reserving your martin nests for Purple Martins only, it will increase your chances of attracting and keeping your first pair of martins. Once you attract your first pair, they will bring in the rest for you.

Sounds like you have a great chance to attract martins. You are in a good martin rich area and just keep running the Starlings off by shooting or trapping.

Good Luck !!

I have one of those Alum. Houses with 8 round holes. Do you think I should invest in SREH alterations?

Thanks for your feed back.

[klcretired]

Larry,
Welcome to the forum , you need to read,read,read & read some more everything that you can on the pmca Main page download center , all of this info will help you out in the long run.
Please don't get mad about what we tell you , we , just like you have been there and we have learned thru our mistakes how to better protect and take care of our precious Martins that we love so much.
we all want to help you enjoy your martins worry free without all the problems that can come, we want you to be prepared.
First of all the house you are describing sounds like a Heath house which if it is you need to invest in better housing, the heath house has very shallow nesting cavities and no doors that allow you to open and do nest checks and the pole is a poor poor telescoping pole that is very hard to make work, is this picture i am posting what your house looks like???
if it is you need to invest in better housing & Pole rather than just buy new entrances, also to help you rid your self of the S&S's (Starlings & Sparrows) you can Make or Purchase a S&S Repeating Controller , theysell the Plans or one put together ready to go here , look under The PMCA Shop Tab at the top of this page , there are a few tricks that can really help you keep the S&S's gone and if you email me i will send you step By Step instructions as what to do instead of taking up so much room here on the forum explaining everything.
again we want only what is best for the Martins and to make it easy on you so you will be able to Protect the martins and watch them in Peace.
If you ca't afford better housing i can show you how to convert & Make your rooms Larger giving the martins more protection.
My email address is at the bottom of this Post so you can contact me.
Your Martin Friend,
Kenny

Heath House


Inside of Heath House

[1 Ron Vasser]

Hi All:

I am new to the forum and hopefully a new Martin landlord.

He came back again on Sunday and On Monday he returned with a female partner. They stayed the night Monday night and Tuesday night, but Wednesday AM I witnessed a Starling chase them out of the house and I have not seen them since.

Since I am new, I have a few questions and could use some help.
1. Will my pair come back?


Larry Walsh Sr.
Poplar Grove, IL

[/quote]

I have one of those Alum. Houses with 8 round holes. Do you think I should invest in SREH alterations?

Thanks for your feed back.[/quote]

I think if you'd have used SREH you would have your colony started. When they stay at a house for 2 nights they try to start setting up house keeping but if a monster comes in I'd head for the hills also. There are people on this forum that insist you need some round holes to start a colony and your post is the reason I disagree with that strategy.
I think you have probably lost that pair and that you should change over to some type SREH. I have all crescent and clinger but there are many types that work. Good luck and I hope you consider changing to SREH.

[klcretired]

Larry ,
Like Ron Said , i also don't agree with needing the round hole entrances they are trouble... one year while i was on vacation i lost my entire colony because of the round hole entrances, i bought new housing with all sreh entrances and haven't had any more problems since.
I have all SREH's on my Gourds and on My Housing and i get martins every year no problem.
so please don't worry about the sreh's the martins will come to them.
I hope this info helps put you at ease.
Your Martin Friend,
Kenny

[James Johnson]

Larry the eight cavity aluminum house you described may be the TRIO Grandmother. However, there may be other eight cavity aluminum houses on the market. PMCA Shop offers the Trio Grandmother and SREH doors. The SREH doors do not look inviting but work very effective to prevent Starlings but do not prevent HOSPS. I have excluder SREH doors on three TRIO houses and SREH excluder doors on a Heath House 24 room castle. I purchased the TRIO doors from PMCA and made the Heath doors. The TRIOs have been converted to six nest cavities and the Heath to 12 nest cavities. You will get good help from FORUM users but we all have our individual preferences and budgets. If I can be of help to you my email is: [email protected]

[ltwalsh]

Larry the eight cavity aluminum house you described may be the TRIO Grandmother. However, there may be other eight cavity aluminum houses on the market. PMCA Shop offers the Trio Grandmother and SREH doors. The SREH doors do not look inviting but work very effective to prevent Starlings but do not prevent HOSPS. I have excluder SREH doors on three TRIO houses and SREH excluder doors on a Heath House 24 room castle. I purchased the TRIO doors from PMCA and made the Heath doors. The TRIOs have been converted to six nest cavities and the Heath to 12 nest cavities. You will get good help from FORUM users but we all have our individual preferences and budgets. If I can be of help to you my email is: [email protected]

James:

Thanks for the feed back. You are correct, I think. The manual says it's a MSS-8 Martin Safety System. I will purchase those doors.

I live in an area where a few of my neighbors have Martin houses as well. I took a look around today and none of them have activity yet. As a matter of fact, many are still closed (winter plugs in).

Maybe that couple was just stopping by? I don't know.

I am going to work hard and I'll get a house started.

Thanks again for your help.

Larry Walsh Sr.

[ltwalsh]

Larry,
Do you have round entrance holes on your martin housing? It is hard for some to make the switch to 100% SREH, but that helps tremendously. The other non-native species you need to watch for is the English House Sparrows.

If you commit to reserving your martin nests for Purple Martins only, it will increase your chances of attracting and keeping your first pair of martins. Once you attract your first pair, they will bring in the rest for you.

Sounds like you have a great chance to attract martins. You are in a good martin rich area and just keep running the Starlings off by shooting or trapping.

Good Luck !!

Kenny:

Thanks for your feed back.

Once I get the house established it will be only for Martin. The house I got is an MSS - 8 Martin Safety System. I am going to invest in the SREH.

I purchased some Martin Decoys which seem to have scared the sparrows for the time being. I hope to have the house established before they figure it out.

Larry

[James Johnson]

Your manual should also show if the inside dividers have knock outs that would convert the MSS to four 12" deep cavities. I recommend the conversion to provides greater safety for the Martins. If you choose to convert to deep cavities you will need to plug four of your original doors and order only four SREH doors. I would also recommend that you order a HOSP trap door for your house. The SREH doors will resolve most of your Starling problem but the little @#$%^ House Sparrows will drive you nuts. The only permanent resolve for HOSPs is elimination.

Welcome to the FORUM and good luck

[LarryMelcher/KY]

Larry,
You have gotten a lot of good advice here. I hope we all did not scare you away from the hobby. Believe me, it is worth the effort. Tonight I enjoyed 30 plus martins coming in for the evening.

Keep reading... You will learn a lot of good, tried and proven stuff here from the PMCA forum.

[Jim Rockford]

I'm no expert but I've been trying, with some success, to attract martins for four years. I had a starling completely destroy my martin colony my first year.

Now, I'm not bothered by starlings at all. I use nothing but SREHs -- crescents on my gourds and modified excluders on my MSS-12. The key to starling control for me was to erect a nest box trap within sight of the martin housing. Starlings will struggle mightily to enter the martin house, but as soon as they see the big round opening in the nest box trap, they're as good as dead. They head straight for the trap every time.

Now, HOSPs are a totally different problem, but I'm having some luck controlling them this year too.

Good luck!

Ed

[ltwalsh]

I'm no expert but I've been trying, with some success, to attract martins for four years. I had a starling completely destroy my martin colony my first year.

Now, I'm not bothered by starlings at all. I use nothing but SREHs -- crescents on my gourds and modified excluders on my MSS-12. The key to starling control for me was to erect a nest box trap within sight of the martin housing. Starlings will struggle mightily to enter the martin house, but as soon as they see the big round opening in the nest box trap, they're as good as dead. They head straight for the trap every time.

Now, HOSPs are a totally different problem, but I'm having some luck controlling them this year too.

Good luck!

Ed

Thanks Ed:

I have the MSS - 8 and have ordered the SREH doors which should be here in a few days. Next it's the trap. As for Sparrows, they seem to have back off on the house since they have seen some Martin activity. I'll keep and eye on them.

Larry

[Carlton]

I agree with James. The Excluder doors that are sold for the Trio's are EXCELLENT. I switched over to all Excluders on my two Trios and the martins quickly learn how to enter. No starlings. They are well worth the purchase price. Also, get a Spar o Door to trap house sparrows that try to take over your Trio. The Spar o Door is an EXCELLENT trap and so easy to use in the Trios. The SREH's work best on enlarged Trios and not the 6x6 individual compartments. I might also suggest a small strip of a nonskid 3M tape on the porch and in the foyer to help the martins enter and exit the Excluder.

[ltwalsh]

I agree with James. The Excluder doors that are sold for the Trio's are EXCELLENT. I switched over to all Excluders on my two Trios and the martins quickly learn how to enter. No starlings. They are well worth the purchase price. Also, get a Spar o Door to trap house sparrows that try to take over your Trio. The Spar o Door is an EXCELLENT trap and so easy to use in the Trios. The SREH's work best on enlarged Trios and not the 6x6 individual compartments. I might also suggest a small strip of a nonskid 3M tape on the porch and in the foyer to help the martins enter and exit the Excluder.

Carlton:

Are you suggesting I convert my MSS - 8 to a 4?

[Carlton]

YES! It is easy to convert and the martins are MUCH more apt to stay and nest. All you need is a 2 inch hole in the partition that divides two adjacent compartments and you plug the back nesting chamber hole. My first pair ever nested in such a Trio Grandma house after I converted like that. There are "plans"/diagrams online on how to do this conversion.

Good luck and do convert them.

[Carlton]

You can see the conversion works!

[Carlton]

http://purplemartin.org/update/9(3)trio.html

[James Johnson]

Carl is right. You want regret converting to four deep cavities. Your MSS may have knock outs in the middle partition. I converted my 12 cavity TRIOS to six. The middle partitions were held in place by rods similar to the door rods. When the rods were removed the middle partition slid out. I do not know how the middle partition on the MSS is secured but if you can remove them you may be able to use them for the back door of the enlarged cavities.

[Carlton]

I have a lot more housing than I really need here so I turned my MSS-12 into a very safe and luxurious 4. The martins enter through an Excluder entrance into a "foyer" and then turn left and go through a 2 inch hole in the partition. They enter a 6x12 inch enlarge space with lots of dry pine needles. It should be very safe back in there with lots of room for nesting and large broods. This is the first year I am trying this conversion. So far the martins seem to like it and are roosting back in the enlarged spaces.

Another thing I do with my Trios is to slide a small in diameter green bamboo garden stake under the two door clips. The door can not be accidently pushed open or pulled open. The thin bamboo stakes protrude way out beyond the house and provide LOTS of additional perching. That attracts martins.