The battle is on in central Texas

[Glenda Detling]

The beautiful martins are definitely coming in , but along with them have come a slew of HOSPs and Starlings The trap for HOSPs is in full operation...don't really know what I can do about the starlings except pull out their nestings. The battle has begun...hopefully the martins will continue to settle in...

[Glenda Detling]

Trapped and disposed of 6 HOSPs today. There's probably 8-10 more hanging around the gourds. I've closed the traps for the rest of the day because of our very high winds today. I don't want to have trapped birds out there if the weather gets really nasty. The starlings are another matter altogether. I've got at least two hanging around. I haven't observed them actually making it into any of the gourds, but one of them attacked one of the male martins this morning as he emerged. He got away, thankfully. The battle continues...

[KathyF]

Glenda - for starlings, you can put SREH on your entrances, then setup a nest box trap with big round holes for starlings.

Starlings can kill adults too - I wouldn't take the chance if I were you.

[Glenda Detling]

Thank you, Kathy. Actually I have had the SREHs on all my gourds for a number of years. My experience is that some starlings always get through. (Maybe they are the smaller ones.) Once they start a nest in a gourd, they tend to continue going into the same one even tho' I continue to pull out the nesting, so I can probably try to set a trap in the chosen one at that point. I hate that they hang around and attack. Yes, they certainly do attack the adults. They are nasty critters!
How is your season going?

[KathyF]

I'm in MO and haven't had any arrive yet, thankfully. Last year, my worst enemy was the drought. It was horrible - so hoping for a better year this year!

Glenda, last year a friend had a starling invade a Troyer vertical gourd with Conley II entrances. Yes, she was very small. Anyway, I waited until she had 2 eggs, then I used one of the gourd tunnel traps. It worked.

I learned from that incident 2 things: 1) don't leave the gourds out or at least close the entrances during the winter - so they don't have time to "learn" how to use SREH; and 2) Try raising the porches if starlings are getting in, to just level with the bottom of the entrance. That seemed to stop others from getting in as well.

Good luck this season!

[Glenda Detling]

Thanks so much, Kathy. I'll keep posting as the season progresses.
Good luck with the draught situation. We are in an on-going draught here in Texas (although February has been unusually wet). It can get pretty tough as we get into summer. 2011 was the worst!!

[Glenda Detling]

Kathy...one more question...If I am successful in trapping the starling...how do you handle it? I've become pretty fearless and quite proficient at disposing of HOSPs. Starlings scare me. How do you get it out of the gourd once youv'e got it trapped?

[Gary W]

Hi Glenda,

No doubt the starlings are getting in, because your porches are too far below the hole. If you raise the level to be about flush with the hole, it should keep them out.

In the past before I raised my porch levels, I removed starlings through the access port. I kept a towel wrapped around my wrist in order to block the starling from escaping, while reaching in and grabbing the bird.

Gary

[Laura Dore]

I've trapped two in my nest traps in the last few days. I have a large plastic bucket that pretzels came in that has a screw on top. I just dump them in the bucket and give them a couple of squirts of engine starting fluid. They go right to sleep. But leave them in there a little while. I had one that I thought was dead, I dumped it in the garbage can. About an hour later, my husband lifted the lid to throw something away, and he almost flew out. But, my husband slammed the lid quick enough to catch his neck in the rim. Man, can they scream loud! I named him Jason the Starling.

[M.Stephens]

I put the caught starling or house sparrow into 2 walmart plastic bags doubled up and shoot a few squirts of the starting fluid in the bag and then tie it up and dump it in the trash.

[Glenda Detling]

I guess getting the starling from the trap to the bucket is the scariest thing to me, but I can wrap my arm in a towel and wear my heavy duty gloves. Thanks for the info.
Unfortunately, I must report our first deadly attack of the season. This afternoon, I brought down the gourds for a nest check and found an adult martin laying dead in the entry of one of the units. I'm certain a starling got him probably this morning when he was emerging. I wish we had a good pellet gun with straight enough aim that we could shoot those things. There are a couple of them that hang out on top of the unit like the gestapo or something. I can chase them off, but that is only temporary.

[klcretired]

Hi Glenda and Ron,
Tell us about your PM Housing , the reason i am asking is there are different insert traps you can buy here at the pmca both that fit Gourds and or Housing, right now the S&S" are looking for places to nest so these traps work great also the S&S Repeating trap works all year long every year to trap all those trash Beaks even when you are not there and as long as you place it close to a tree or building you will never catch a martin

[Glenda Detling]

We have gourds (Troyer, I think). We also have the little door traps, that I think will work as soon as I can pinpoint where a starling is starting a nest. So far, it doesn't look like the starlings are going in...we still have at least one that is roosting above chasing martins away. Mostly we have sparrows trying to nest. I'm trapping several every day, and I feel encouraged that we may be getting control on that end. This evening I watched several martins fly in and settle into gourds for the night. It was really beautiful!

[klcretired]

Glenda and Ron,
Don't give up on trapping perseverance Pays off ...it may take just a little while but the S & S's will quit coming after a while, in the bird community word gets around don't go over there it's The Bates Motel...you check in ...but never check out.... seriously , I was like you in your situation it took awhile but now it sure is nice to just have Martins and no Trash beaks. It is worth the fight...stay after em!!!!!!
They are Traps for the Troyers too.
you guys can email me if you have any questions