my experience with starlings

[Lewis]

I think it was 2009 when I bought a A16 gourd rack from CUE and put up 8 round hole THG's with cling plates and 8 THG's with Conley II sreh's. At about the same time I purchase a MPP from CUE and a Safe Have House. I guess I was lucky that a nearby colony had lost it''d martins due to lack of predator guards.( I tried to advise to no avail). Well. As soon as I put up the A16 I was covered up with martins. Before this I had a Trio Musselman for more than 10 years and always had a few martins. One year I noticed owl feathers and pulled open Trio doors and nest distruction. This was when I became aware of this Forum. After I put up the A16 with both round holes and Conley SREH I was attacked by starlings ,I'll say 10 or more like 20. They went for the round holes. I called Andy Troyer and bought 3 Haskell traps plus..the SS Controler. I remember him saying you must have a real starling problem. I caught many starlings in the Troyer/Haskel trap( they no longer offer) I converted all but one THG to Conley II. The one round hole ThG helped me control starlings but they were able to breach the crescent sreh's on my Safe Haven house. I had some WEP's for wing entrapment I installed on my old Trio but because of the sliding doors on my Safe Haven could not install. I noticed the starlings could force their way in the crescent entrance and move the door up to give them more access. I installed the WEP's over the crescent entrance , raised the porch to flush and secured the doors were they would not move. The starlings could no longer get into the Safe Have House, but I saw some small starlings entering the Conley II sreh's and throwing out martin eggs and hatchlings . Mad you quess. The round hole THG with trap helped, but, I went to war with muy full choke 410 single shot, I have 20',12's and 22's but I was reluctant to use. I would hunt starlings like I hunt squirrels. Stalk and shoot out of nearby trees . It was war. After I modified the Conley II. The starlings mostly disapeared. I still used a nest box trap for awhile but converted the round hole THG to a tunnel with modified Conley II I no longer ( nock on wood) have a starling problem, although one did get in to my old musselman with crescent sreh used for a sparrow trap with Sparo doors. The starling pulled out the plug and got in, built a nest with 3 nestlings.

I recite all this to give those of you who don't have starling problems, how bad it can be . You have to control the starlings or you will not have martins. Same with sparrows. I had a few but was able to trap and shoot all of them so far.

LEWIS

[Courtney-NC]

Thank you for your insight, Lewis. I have suggested your Lewis modification to many folks who have issues with the starlings breaching the Conley II entrance hole.
I have also had awful issues with starlings over the years. One other thing I noticed about them was that even if they could not get in due to a SREH on a shallow gourd, they would still reach in with their long needle beaks as far as possible and rip out the pine straw I used as a pre-nest, and they would throw it out.
I have since put tunnels with recessed entrances on all my gourds (except the deep ones with interior porches) and this problem has stopped. I leave a few more inches of tunnel between the entrance plate and the nest bowl area so that it is out of reach by starlings.
I started this colony as well as 2 others with all SREH, so it is possible to do so, and i'm glad they are available.

[Lewis]

You have an impressive web site and organization. Keep the good work.

Lewis