SREH breached!!!!

[Stingray]

I looked out at my supergourds early evening yesterday and saw what I thought were two martins...one sitting on the porch of one gourd and the beak of another sticking out of another gourd. As I got closer, I saw that the beak was yellow! This is not good..or possible I thought, but sure enough there was a starling in a gourd. He panicked and struggled and pulled himself out. They both took off. I've not seen them today and hope not to! I've read about this happening and now saw it for myself.
Damn yellow beaks!!

[Tim Stover]

they are some of them i call proto type or runts they can breach a sreh but most of the time their mate can't

[Gary W]

Hi Stingray,

In the past, I have had starlings breach, crescents, modified excluders, and excluder II SREH's. I solved the problem, by raising the porch levels to less than 1/8 of an inch below the hole. If you don't make this modification, they will keep getting in! You can make the porch level flush with the hole, if you want to.

Gary

[Stingray]

they are some of them i call proto type or runts they can breach a sreh but most of the time their mate can't

Thanks for the feedback Tim. Hopefully they won't be back!

Hi Stingray,

In the past, I have had starlings breach, crescents, modified excluders, and excluder II SREH's. I solved the problem, by raising the porch levels to less than 1/8 of an inch below the hole. If you don't make this modification, they will keep getting in! You can make the porch level flush with the hole, if you want to.

Gary

Appreciate the feedback and advice Gary.
May have to do some modifying!

[Laverne]

And, this year we have the "miracle" starling who crawled through a crescent SREH with an almost flush porch. She and her mate are making me crazy - but, I will get them.

I have not seen this before and hope to never see it again!!

[ChrisM]

I saw one enter a sreh on my martin house, also. It seemed pretty small, and is not getting in again. I have all my entrances still closed, and getting my sparrow trap ready for the nesters, due to the fact the sparrows are now placing nesting material on the porches of my S&K, which is going out the window next year, as I am puting up gourds!!

I live in NE Kansas, and have not seen or heard one martin yet....in fact very few of any kind.. except maybe geese hundreds and hundreds heading north!.

[~Ray~Gingerich]

My theory is those flying rats will adapt by breeding smaller just so they can enter their favorite house.

[Carlton]

I suggest that people put up a THG with a round tunnel entrance and use the wire loop trap to catch starlings. It works VERY GOOD for starlings but not so great for HS. I hang it from a tall hook in the yard, near a large bush facing the martin housing. When a starling gets trapped all one has to do is put a large clear fairly heavy plastic bag over the entrance to the THG, tap on the gourd and the starling will come ZOOMING out into the bag. Spray a speck of ether into the bag and the pest will be dead in a few minutes.

[NancyinEnidOK]

Speaking of SREH breaches -- this afternoon a starling got into one of my THGs through a Conley-2 entrance. I didn't see the entrance (except for the tailfeathers going in, which at the time I thought was a Martin). I did see it exit the gourd and it passed through the entrance easily. Half of my new gourds have Conley-2 entrances and I hope this was not a bad mistake on my part. Does anyone know of a reasonably simple fix for this?

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

There is no reasonable simple fix for a small starling, the fixes that work are a trap or a pellet rifle. There are different sized starlings, and it is a large difference in some cases, and the very small ones can get thru the SREH. You will see this early in the season, and as the starlings grow, the SREH will work most of the time. Some people like certain entrances and claim that they work better, but they all fail on a small starling, and they all work on a large starling if they are the correct size (1-3/16in).

A fix that you can try, and it may work, is to make the entrance nearly flush, about 1/16 to 1/8 inch above the floor. This makes it harder for the starlings & martins to enter, but the martins usually can enter.

Martins are different sizes also, and some really struggle to enter an SREH, and some give up and move on to a different cavity or a different site. Fortunately most martins can enter the SREH.

[Matt F.]

Have there ever been any reported breaches with the original Excluder?

[Louise Chambers]

So few that statistically it would equate to zero

[NancyinEnidOK]

There is no reasonable simple fix for a small starling, the fixes that work are a trap or a pellet rifle. There are different sized starlings, and it is a large difference in some cases, and the very small ones can get thru the SREH. You will see this early in the season, and as the starlings grow, the SREH will work most of the time. Some people like certain entrances and claim that they work better, but they all fail on a small starling, and they all work on a large starling if they are the correct size (1-3/16in).

A fix that you can try, and it may work, is to make the entrance nearly flush, about 1/16 to 1/8 inch above the floor. This makes it harder for the starlings & martins to enter, but the martins usually can enter.

Martins are different sizes also, and some really struggle to enter an SREH, and some give up and move on to a different cavity or a different site. Fortunately most martins can enter the SREH.

Thanks, Emil -- This breach was really alarming but at first, but from what I'm hearing from you and other experienced Forum members, it looks like the real problem was the small size of the starling rather than the entrance itself. That is a BIG relief! That being the case, I will leave my gourds like they are, so as not to make entry more challenging for the Martins, who will hopefully come in time. Shooting/Trapping -- I do have a Benjamin and get several trash birds a week with it, but am not a good enough shot yet to take one out if it's sitting on a gourd, power line, etc. I was using tunnel traps until Martins came to our area, then removed them because I did not want to accidentally trap a Martin. I could put a tunnel trap back into the gourd that the starling got into, but what would happen if a Martin came first and got captured? I do check the traps every 15-20 minutes, but even at that it seems like the Martin would probably be freaked out and never come back. Has this happened to anyone that you're aware of? Thank you for your help!

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Nancy, I think that I would try the trap, especially since you can monitor so oftem. If you do happen to trap a martin, it may decide to leave but there is about a 90% chance that it will stay in my opinion. Martins are so loyal to their old site (and I am assuming that you have an old site), they will not leave quickly.

Looking at it from a different angle, if the martin goes in and the starling finds the martin in the starlings gourd, it may kill the martin. So the martin could be in worse trouble if you don't trap the starling.

Having said that, just do what you are comfortable with, shoot it if you can may be a better way

[Scott D.- La]

In regard's to Nancy, it's unfortunate that Andy Troyer did not follow the radius tightly as suggested with the Wing Entrapment Guard. That extra room, surely allowed this breech. In watching Martin's enter my Conley 2 with the homemade Wing Entrapment Guard v/s the Factory Conley 2 with Guard, there is a difference in difficulty as they must squat lower with the flush mounted guard. I know that entrance could be made tighter with smaller Wing Entrapment Guard's since the Martin's easily get through. I would raise the porch flush as Emil has suggested. If you have the ability, you can make the entrance smaller with Wing Entrapment Guard's by bringing in the sides more and lowering the height. At some point, they will not be able to enter regardless of their size. The Conley 2 is going to have to be re-designed to get 100 % effectiveness, there's no 2 way's about it.

[Stingray]

For your feedback.

Emil, I just finished modifying two of my gourds. I drilled two new holes in the gourds and made the porch just about flush with the entrance. I took down the other four gourds and will now watch for the yellow beaks to see if it discourages them. As a last resort, I have a Crossman repeater CO2 pellet gun with a nice scope on it!
Thankfully, I have two pair of martins that are using my Coates house, so my season is still on!
I'll keep you posted. Keep your fingers crossed.

Thanks again!

There is no reasonable simple fix for a small starling, the fixes that work are a trap or a pellet rifle. There are different sized starlings, and it is a large difference in some cases, and the very small ones can get thru the SREH. You will see this early in the season, and as the starlings grow, the SREH will work most of the time. Some people like certain entrances and claim that they work better, but they all fail on a small starling, and they all work on a large starling if they are the correct size (1-3/16in).

A fix that you can try, and it may work, is to make the entrance nearly flush, about 1/16 to 1/8 inch above the floor. This makes it harder for the starlings & martins to enter, but the martins usually can enter.

Martins are different sizes also, and some really struggle to enter an SREH, and some give up and move on to a different cavity or a different site. Fortunately most martins can enter the SREH.

[Stingray]

Well modifying the gourds did not help.
As I watched, the wretched starlings just went right into the raised porch
gourds as if they belonged there.

Mr. Crosman will handle this situation.

Stay tuned..

[M.Stephens]

Stingray I set out on the patio all day yesterday waiting for Mr. Starling after I saw what I thought was a breach. I got one of them yesterday and shot at another this morning. As Emil said pellet rifle or trap... I use a 12 gauge and an S&S Controller for starlings.

If they are getting through raised porches on a SREH then trapping and shooting are the best way to get rid of these new starlings.

[Stingray]

Stingray I set out on the patio all day yesterday waiting for Mr. Starling after I saw what I thought was a breach. I got one of them yesterday and shot at another this morning. As Emil said pellet rifle or trap... I use a 12 gauge and an S&S Controller for starlings.

If they are getting through raised porches on a SREH then trapping and shooting are the best way to get rid of these new starlings.

Thanks!
Thankfully, I've still got some occupancy in my Coates house!

[DaveHRRTX]

Well modifying the gourds did not help.
As I watched, the wretched starlings just went right into the raised porch
gourds as if they belonged there.

Mr. Crosman will handle this situation.

Stay tuned..

I agree! I was out watching the birds just the other day and watched a couple of starlings repeatedly going in and out of one the units. It was the same one each time.

Mr. Crosman intervened and the interloper is no more.

Dave