They didn't realize it was for house sparrows.....

[KathyF]

HA! Today, I captured 3 starlings in this trap!

http://purplemartin.org/shop/product_in ... 50e3a22c81

I have Conley II entrances on my Troyer gourds, but the entrances on my Trendsetter are still round. I monitor my site pretty closely and I'm able to shoot here. But, I have found that shooting involves a lot of time. So this year, I've setup the S&S repeating nestbox trap about 100' from my setup where it has caught 4 this week after they would unsuccessfully try to get into the Conley II entrances.

I had all the holes closed on the house, but decided that I would just give the little sparrow trap a try in one of the cavities. I put some pine needles in it over the trip lever and painted 2 pieces of cardboard a jet-black color. I put the cardboard inside the back of the trap and to the right of the door entry so they couldn't tell what size the "box" was that they were stepping into.

For whatever reason, they would stand on the porch and try to pull all the pine needles out of the "cavity" and would ultimately just step right in the trap to try to get the rest out. I caught 3 starlings in that one sparrow trap today! Boy, were they mad too! They tried to stab me with their needle-sharp beaks as I removed the trap from the nest cavity.

One of them wanted to file a "deceitful capture" complaint - I told him "duly noted".

NB repeating trap - 4, universal sparrow trap - 3; Me =

[Jeff Robinson]

Good hunting.....or eliminating, Kathy! I'd love to put up some S&S control, but I have too many Bluebirds that I'm afraid to harm. Fortunately, I have very few problems with Starlings now since they've learned to be very unappreciative of all their buddies perishing via .22 from last Spring, all the way thru this winter.

I assume you still havn't seen any of your martins yet? Nasty weather, huh. But, sounds like it'll break for a decent week for southern MO this week.

Ok, so the highlight of my day....My wife thought I was crazy, or crazier than normal! I don't have a huge HSP problem here (YET), however, I'm not completely free of them. Was sitting in my chair recliner this afternoon, reading the forum and occasionally glancing out my sliding door at my PM houses....when I saw a flash of gray and what I knew wasn't a bluebird stealing straw from my THGs like they were earlier this morning. I leaped out of my chair, over the coffee table, grabbed the binocs, and ID'd the culprit as a male HSP flying from gourd to gourd. I grabbed the .22, slid open the door, steadied myself, let out a breath, and Daniel Boone'd that little sucker just as he slid out of the THG Conley 2 that I'd just put up about an hour ealier. ROAR....You'd think the KC Chiefs had just won the Superbowl, and everybody came running. Sooo, I went down and proudly displayed my slight win against these non-native beasts, and now everybody knows what the most unwelcome bird in my yard is - the only one that can breach the gourds and Goliad SREH, and was responsible for my first year's failure.

Dawnsong and chatter will be playing loud and long this week! Hope you and your mentees get some birds soon - I saw all your markers posted on the Google maps. Neat deal!

[KathyF]

Hi Bedrock,
Thanks. I too have bluebirds. They took one trip through the S&S controller and after exiting the BB escape hole that I had drilled, they haven't been back in it.

I don't have a real problem here with starlings - my neighbors and I have been diligent with killing them the last 3 years. I think these are young from last year. I'm going to start shooting again this week.

I caught 1 starling in the S&S controller, but he somehow figured out how to climb back up the PVC pipe - 8 feet of pipe!!! into the trap box. I finally extracted him this morning when he came down, but I have to figure out how to stop that from happening.

Your story about running to shoot the sparrow is familiar and toooo funny! I know that feeling of victory when you finally get them. I would rather deal with starlings - the sparrows are a much more insidiuos problem to deal with. I was overrun with them last year (apparently, someone let them breed!! ), and killed 34 in the immediate surrounding area.
Good luck with them this year --you have to be on your toes with them!

Expecting arrivals here next week!

[zoefluf]

Kathy,
Please explain how you get the Starlings out of the trap without them escaping from YOU and without getting bitten by those sharp little yellow beaks!
Jeanne

[KathyF]

Hi Jeanne,
If you're asking about the small universal sparrow trap, here's how:

I wear a thick pair of leather gloves - like the ones men use for working on barbed wire fence.

I wait until the starling pokes his beak through the cage long enough for me to grab hold of it (may take a couple of minutes). Then I hold him there while I undo the wire tie that holds the back door on.

After I open the door (still holding him by his beak), I grab his body with my free hand, let go of his beak and pull him out. Then, I twist his neck until it breaks.

And just in case I may get distracted in this process, before I open to the cage, I take it into my garage with all doors closed, so that he can't escape if I screw up!

If I catch them in my NB repeating trap, I do this: I have a small 1.5" hole drilled for the bluebirds to escape. I take my pellet gun with me and slip the barrel though the hole and shoot them in the cage. I can't open that cage without a chance of losing one or two. I'm going to put a smaller door that will just fit around my arm on that trap cage, when I get a chance.

Hope this helps!

[zoefluf]

Well, I have my NB repeating trap and my Universal sparrow trap both set. I am hoping that the Martins don't get caught cause there are more and more coming in every day, but I simply MUST do away with this dastardly sparrow "couple" that come every morning going in and out of the PM gourds at will, blocking the entrances when the PMs try to get in. I thought I could shoot them but I am a horrible shot and my nerves are frayed as I keep missing (and like you said it is too time consuming). Wish me luck!

[Lane Stout]

Jeanne, do you have Troyer gourds? If you have a tunnel model with a porch the small aluminum sliding door trap accessory works great. After noticing a sparrow pair in one of mine I added the door and in just a few hours caught the pair at the same time. Simple yet very effective.

http://purplemartin.org/shop/product_in ... 5a931ac29d

[zoefluf]

Lane,
It is the Troyer gourds that they are going in and out of. They go in and out of ALL of them so I wouldn't know which one to put the trap on (I do have one) and many of the gourds are occupied by Martins so I am afraid that a Martin will get caught in the trap cause they are now fighting for cavities. I had my Coates house, which the sparrows love, closed off - for just that reason. I figured by the time the Subbies came the sparrows would have a nest somewhere else and I would open it up then.

SO, I opened one cavity in the Coates house and put the Universal Sparrow trap in that and set the NB repeating trap (I hadn't had any luck with it last year so I had that closed too.) Hopefully, by tomorrow, those little boogers will have angel wings (oops, I mean devil horns!)

[Show-Me-Mike]

Kathy, I've been thinking about getting that same trap for my houses that have Conley II entrances. Question. Does the motion of raising the houses set off the trap prematurely? Or, is the tripping device not that sensitive?

Thanks!

Mike

[Carlton]

I have had good luck with that trap on my Troyer Horizontal Gourds with starlings but I find that the HS do not trigger it. I tried everything but could not get it to work for HS. I liked the trap so much that I bought a tunnel with a round hole and have that THG hanging from a shepherd's hook where I can reach it. The starlings are easy to remove with a plastic bag over the entrance much as one would remove a HS from a Spar o Door trap. The starlings do not mind the low height AT ALL. I caught many last spring using that method. Once they are in the thick, fairly clear, plastic bag I squeeze them until they expire. Quick.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Kathy, I always try to camo the trap also, put small twigs over it and they seem to get mad and try to remove the twigs. I even let some stick out of the entrance hole, that also seems to infuriate the S&S, they immediately remove it!

[KathyF]

Kathy, I've been thinking about getting that same trap for my houses that have Conley II entrances. Question. Does the motion of raising the houses set off the trap prematurely? Or, is the tripping device not that sensitive?

Thanks!

Mike

Mike,
Yes, sometimes the motion sets it off and you have to lower, reset & raise it again. But it doesn't happen very often for me. I take my time raising the house back up and usually only raise it up about 2/3 of the way.

If you've got the Conley entrances, make sure you put something around the face of the trap to try to camoflauge the front hole. I put the black cardboard inside the trap walls too, to give the appearance of a bigger cavity.

Good luck!
By the way, got my first martin last night - an ASY female!! Be on the lookout - she's 9 days earlier than my martins last year.

[zoefluf]

YIPPEE, I got him!! First thing this morning I saw his female companion on the Coates house sitting in front of the cavity with the Universal Trap. Boy, was he mad! I left him in there for about an hour cause I didn't want to disturb the Martins so early. He almost got out of it! By the time I went to get him out, he had managed to get himself 3/4 of the way out of the trap and was hanging upside down on the outside. Some of his feathers were stuck in the trap door. It was sad though cause he was very upset. Not wanting to torture the poor little guy any longer, I sprayed him with Starter Fluid, took the trap out and put him in a plastic bag. Yes, I must admit, I did shed a tear. I don't like to hurt God's creatures. I was almost tempted to let him go but I thought of the Martins and their future offspring and I just had to follow through. But, I don't enjoy it at all.

I'm praying that his female doesn't come back. Do you think she will? Someone posted that if you get the male the female leaves. I hope so. Do sparrows come around all season or is it just at the beginning of Martin season? I seem to see them only in the beginning.

[Guest]

Kathy,

You go Girl!!!!!

[Guest]

Yes, I must admit, I did shed a tear. I don't like to hurt God's creatures. I was almost tempted to let him go but I thought of the Martins and their future offspring and I just had to follow through. But, I don't enjoy it at all.

Agreed. It's gotten easier over the past couple of years, but it's still hard for me.

[KathyF]

Jeanne, congratulations!

I don't know if the information on whether the female comes back or not *always* holds true. I can tell you that I killed 4 males last year in one area and had a hard time getting the female. She was very, very sneaky and stayed out of my range. She happily sacrificed male after male, until I finally got her too.

Keep an eye out for her! Frankly, I'm surprised you got him so quickly! When I put in a trap for HOSP, they're so wary of it, they usually just change to another cavity and it's hard for me to catch them...so kudos to you!

I know it's hard to do it. I even felt bad when I grab the starlings out of the small trap - I can feel their panic and heart and it makes it difficult. ...except when they try to stab me again with that wretched beak! shooting is much easier on the mind.

I found 4 broken martin eggs last year by a HOSP, and I've shown the picture of what one HOSP did to my 5 tree swallow babies (boy, was I heartbroken and mad at the same time!). After that particular day, my feelings of sadness over killing them were pretty much over. It will get easier as you reap the rewards for protecting your martins.

I agree that they're God's creatures, however, I believe that God also instructed us to be good stewards of his animals - and that means his Bluebirds, martins, tree swallows, etc. too. So, that's what I'm working with. Sadly, we weren't and now we must correct the imbalance. I hope it gets better for you and you just don't have to deal with them!!

I love this particular story...."The Tale of the three little birds"

http://www.sialis.org/parfait.htm

[Guest]

I know it's hard to do it. I even felt bad when I grab the starlings out of the small trap - I can feel their panic and heart and it makes it difficult. ...except when they try to stab me again with that wretched beak! shooting is much easier on the mind.

I shoot them while in the trap cage with a pellet pistol. It works and I never have to grab them.

[Lane Stout]

They go in and out of ALL of them so I wouldn't know which one to put the trap on

Jeanne, I only installed the trap door mechanism after the HS had begun building a nest in the gourd. They were defending the cavity and thus I was much less concerned about martins going in it. I always monitor a cavity trap such as this very closely and would never go away and leave it unattended.