Natureline gourd question............do the PM's readily....
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geneinmurphy
- Posts: 348
- Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2003 12:09 pm
- Location: North Carolina/Murphy
enter the oblong entrance gourds without aid of a porch??? I have porches on mine, but have never tried them without the porches. Was wondering if in similarity to crescent entrances in that they would need porches or not.......
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Craig Haddox
- Posts: 444
- Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2004 5:13 pm
- Location: Missouri Washington
geneinmurphy, I have 8 Natureline gourds with obround holes without porches and the martins use them with no problems. They are used every year.
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Louise Chambers
- Site Admin
- Posts: 6208
- Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 1:07 pm
- Location: Corpus Christi, TX
Gene,
You might be interested in this post from Mike Scully about Natureline use at his school's colony:
http://purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic ... ght=scully
Mike uses cling rods on his, inside and out, but plans to try them without next year. He's had good results with naturelines overall; he uses srehs but I cannot remember which type(s) just now. There's an article about his work with students and martins in the Summer issue of the Update, which most members should have received by now.
Louise
You might be interested in this post from Mike Scully about Natureline use at his school's colony:
http://purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic ... ght=scully
Mike uses cling rods on his, inside and out, but plans to try them without next year. He's had good results with naturelines overall; he uses srehs but I cannot remember which type(s) just now. There's an article about his work with students and martins in the Summer issue of the Update, which most members should have received by now.
Louise
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geneinmurphy
- Posts: 348
- Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2003 12:09 pm
- Location: North Carolina/Murphy
Louise...I noticed that he had crescent entrances and used cling rods, which is an idea I had not thought of. Unlike him, I never had problems with starlings trying to enter my porched oblong entrances. The biggest thing I don't like about the Natureline gourds is the difficulty of putting on porches (since the front is round, its difficult)...........
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apundt-TX
- Posts: 986
- Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2004 7:34 pm
- Location: Pflugerville, Texas
- Martin Colony History: :
2022-1 pair
1 pair 2021
2020- Didn't get setup fast enough in Pflugerville
2019- Apartment
2018 Divorce lost Colony in Dripping Springs
19 pair 2017
17 pair 2015
12 pair 2014
8 pair 2013
5 pair 2012
2 pair 2011
I picked up a gourd rack and plastic gourds from a couple in Bryan, TX last month. The had naturaline gourds with creecent & oblongs without porches. They said that the martins got used to going without the porches/cling rods before they had a chance to install them that they decided just to not modify the gourds.
A.P.
A.P.
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Guest
I would try it without the porches-primarily because starlings can learn to turn their breast slightly to enter an ob-round hole, and a porch facilitates this. I'm given to understand the excluder entrance was designed for this very reason.
Here is what we have done with our Naturelines....
We soon abandoned the perched obrounds as starlings entered them freely, although in fairness, we never ran them "as is" without a cling rod or perch of any kind.
Next year we will offer just crescent SREH without a rod or perch of any kind on our Naturelines but probably glue strips or leave strips of "Great Stuff" on the inside to provide the martins some purchase when scrabbling to get out the entrance.
This will provide a useful comparison as the martins occupied most of our cling-rod Naturelines during previous seasons.
Probably we will opt to buy new entrances rather than just remove the perches from the old, I wouldn't want to leave even an empty screw hole to give the starlings a place to grip while wriggling in.
Mike Scully
We soon abandoned the perched obrounds as starlings entered them freely, although in fairness, we never ran them "as is" without a cling rod or perch of any kind.
Next year we will offer just crescent SREH without a rod or perch of any kind on our Naturelines but probably glue strips or leave strips of "Great Stuff" on the inside to provide the martins some purchase when scrabbling to get out the entrance.
This will provide a useful comparison as the martins occupied most of our cling-rod Naturelines during previous seasons.
Probably we will opt to buy new entrances rather than just remove the perches from the old, I wouldn't want to leave even an empty screw hole to give the starlings a place to grip while wriggling in.
Mike Scully