Fighting hosp and starlings

[marcus]

Yesterday at my dad's shop, I noticed a pair of starlings building a nest in the gutter. So today I took my shot gun and when no customers were there, I tried to shoot them. I ended up shooting 2 starlings and a male hosp. I have 2 bluebird houses there and the 1 fledged its first nest today. I saw all 4 of them up in the tree. When I got home from the shop, I saw a sparrow on my feeder below my gourd rack. So I grabbed my shot gun and shot him. When I went out to see him, I heard another one on my T-14. Fortunately, he flew on to the telephone wire and I shot him too. Also I killed a starling in my S and S controller this morning. (I caught him yesterday and forgot to kill him) I killed 65 starlings and hosp with my S and S controller in about a year's time. It just seems you can kill so many and they keep coming in.

[MamaBruff]

Good Job! All part of being a good landlord for native birds. Yes it is a constant, essential, ugly battle. Make sure your T14 has SREH entrances, so at least the starlings don't find it attractive. I keep a BB house painted white near the martin setup with a reducer entrance (1 -5/16") with a Van Ert trap inside. BBs can't get in, and sparrows find it attractive and easy. Have a number of different kinds of traps. PMCA has quite a variety to start with. Some of the LIVE HOSP you trap can go into a repeater trap (PMCA or Blaine's) to call in more HOSP. You can go from 1 to 6 in a day! Of course the S&S keep coming. The average person doesn't know or care; they're just "birds" to them, and think they are doing something good by feeding them and putting up housing. GRRR.

[mike2656]

Keep up the good work.

[marcus]

Mary,
All of my T-14 compartments are SREH. Only 1 gourd is not SREH. It is a natural gourd that we hung horizontally. We have 5 eggs in it and the starlings seem to want to visit my s and s controller before trying to nest in that gourd.

[Okie]

It just seems you can kill so many and they keep coming in.

I felt I was making progress when I figured out that for each female HOSP I eliminated it actually added up to eliminating 16 to 28 babies which will never be .
According to sialis.org:
HOSP lay 4-7 eggs and can raise up to 4 broods a year.
Starlings lay 4-7 eggs and can re-brood in a year.
Then I realized that no matter how many actual flying rats of either species eliminated it only takes X number reproducing to replace ALL that have been eliminated.
Depressing statistics No wonder their numbers are so high & for every one we eliminate, there are 2 or 3 more to take their place.
So I prefer to focus on the number which will never be. And educate others as to the necessity of eliminating these threats to our native birds. The more of us actively controlling, the better even if we are only keeping the numbers down.
So far I have trapped 43 HOSP, 20 of which were females. So taking the minimum of 16 eggs, that is 320 babies which will never be. A good number on which to focus.
For some reason my Blaine ground trap catches mainly females & nest box traps in the houses traps mainly males [that is logical as they choose the site & make the nest].
Just my take. My math may be off but you get the point.
Okie

[Okie]

FYI Update:
I just emptied Blaine cage as there were 6 birds in it. For the very First time there was a bird other than HOSP.
It was larger than sp, solid colored smokey buff, no stripes of any sort, no stripe through the eye. Head & breast the same color. As I had her in my hand her head impressed me as a dove. Do not know for sure as I thought doves were larger than this bird. But Do Not Worry I released her
So be sure to check what you catch as I never thought I would get anything but HOSP
Okie

[Matt F.]

It was larger than sp, solid colored smokey buff, no stripes of any sort, no stripe through the eye. Head & breast the same color. As I had her in my hand her head impressed me as a dove.

Almost sounds like an Inca Dove:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Inca_Dove/id
Even though Claremore is a bit north of their normal range, it's close enough that I'd say it's plausible to have some there.

[Okie]

Thanks Matt. Yes she looked a lot like these pics. I did not get a good pic just one of the cage with all the sp too. Not a good pic at all. These pics look a little larger than this bird who was not a whole lot bigger than the sparrows. But otherwise I think that is right on. Happy to know my guess was right.
Okie

[Okie]

Here is the pic of the dove caught in Blaine trap. She is the one in the middle. I think you are right on Matt Thank you again