Whistle Gourds from S & K

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Carlton
Posts: 1959
Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 6:42 pm
Location: Florida/Deerfield Beach
Martin Colony History: I moved to South Florida, from Delaware, in August of 2015.

I care for a 6 condo Sunset House as well as two Deluxe Gourd Racks, with 24 Chirpynest/Excluder gourds, along a canal in Pompano Beach, Florida.


At Quiet Waters Park, nearby in Deerfield Beach, I care for a Deluxe Gourd Rack with 12 TVG's. I also care for a Deluxe Gourd rack with 12 Excluder gourds with Modified Excluder entrances. I am substituting 6 Chirpynest boxes for 6 of the Conley II entranced gourds in 2026.

At another local park, Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek, I care for a Trendsetter 12, 5 gourds rack with 60 Excluder gourds with Modified Excluder Entrances and 1 Deluxe Gourd Rack with 12 Troyer Vertical Gourds with Starling Stoppers over the Conley II's to keep out smaller starlings.

Has anyone had any experiences, good or bad, with the S & K Whistle Gourd? The concept sounds good when reading the ad.

Carlton[/b]
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Guest

Carlton, I don't know about the whistle gourd, as I have never used them. However, I have a suggestion. The PMCA sells a Troyer Horizontal Gourd with crescent entrance for $16.95 (PMCA Member's Price). This gourd is a deep gourd and it provides protection from owls. They did have a problem with this gourd having a slick exit surface, but they fixed that now so that the martins can exit without a problem. You can also score up the exit ramp to provide traction for the martins. Here is the link to the PMCA Shop that contains the page in which the Troyer Horizontal Gourd is displayed on.

http://www.purplemartin.org/shop/GHouses1.html
Last edited by Guest on Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Guest

We have used these gourds the last two years,, The first year we had martins use them with good success. This year there were nests built in all four gourds but no eggs were layed and nothing fledged... Dont know what happened but I will be using thim again next year and hope for better results.GENE.. , Had good results with super gourds in the same colony
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rickluc
Posts: 172
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:20 pm
Location: Indiana/Monticello

Message to Gene Kuhn
Thats interesting about the nest and no eggs in the whistle gourds. I know you said you had no ideal but can you contribute that to any reasonable answers? Thanks
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Guest

To Gene:

Did you have an excellent predator guard on the pole that held your Whistle Gourds? It rather sounds like the work of a rat snake.
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starling shooter
Posts: 461
Joined: Wed Nov 19, 2003 7:43 pm
Location: Central MO

I had 3 whistle gourds on a reack with natural gourds. They all has cresetn SREH. The 3 whistle gourds were not occupied. I'm going to spray paint the inside of them so they are dark and not so bright inside next year. I do think they are great housing however. The only think I would change woud be to make the entrance on the side so the PM have to do a 90...offers a bit more protectoin from owls.
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Guest

I have no clue why the nests were made and not used, the housing is on the end of my dock so there are no snakes we have no snakes of this type in this area.. No evidence of owls ect and I "take care "" of the starilngs and sparrows... I still like the housing and will use it again but just dont know what happened this year as other housing was successful... GENE
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