Good News and Bad News

[Guest]

This is my second year as a landlord and last year I had 1 successful pair that fledged 4 little ones. This year I've got 2 ASY pairs that have just begun nest building with two more males hanging around regularly, one ASY and one SY. I have two gourd racks with 12 very large natural gourds on each, one of which all the gourds are closed off to move a TS over to another gourd on a shepard's crook about 35 feet from the nearest martin gourd rack. That seems to be working and the TS's are building a nest in the provided gourd. There is also a bluebird family with chicks about 60 feet away in a peterson oval hole next box. All well and good so far.

Last night on arriving home from work I see a starling sitting on the martin gourd rack that's open, several martins are in their normal gourds, and then the starling pops in and out of one of the unoccupied gourds. I ran in the house and grabbed my starling pacifier, read Remington 1100, but before I got the deck door open all the way he was out of there. I tried sitting on the bank, the poles are roughly 100 feet from the house, but he wouldn't come in. Went back in the house and he'd land on the cross poles but no matter how I tried to ease outside for a shot, he'd get out of Dodge.

My question is this. How long do I have before this unwanted guest begins to take over the whole rack. I hate to take a day off work to eliminate one starling and will have this weekend to take care of the problem even if full camo is needed. What's anyone's thoughts?

[Scully]

BC... I think perhaps no one has answered yet because there is no pat answer to this question. Dependent upon the starling he could go all season-long in that same cavity, or systematically go through and decimate a half dozen nests. On an encouraging note, in starling invasions we have suffered thus far the male/pair have focused on a single gourd while martins occupied adjacent gourds.

Perhaps a larger point is he likely wont be the last, and obviously taking off work for each one probably isn't a workable solution. Along those lines though, I have seen starlings arrive at housing to advertise at first light, so perhaps you can take care of the problem AND get to work.

Conversion to SREH's (if possible) would likely be a good thing.

Mike Scull

[klcretired]

BCowles,
What kind of entrances do you have on your Housing??, sounds like they may be all round hole entrances if so ,could you possibly convert them to sreh's/Cresents so the starlings can't get in...if you don't get rid of the scum beaks your colony will never have a chance for survival at all, the scum beaks will destroy everything egg's ,nest and including your Grown Martins, i have seen it happen and it has happened to me in year's past, my suggestion is to get you a S&S Repeating trap and some nestbox traps to place around your property, you can place the S&S repeating trap near any tree's and the Martins won't ever go near it and the S&S works for you all year long every year....a really good investment if you want martins. You can get the S&S right here at this site under PMCA Shop, then find traps.They also are insert traps you can get for your housing and or Gourd's here on the pmca...i hope this info helps you.
Good Luck!!!!

[Guest]

Thanks for the input. They are all round holes and while SREH's may be a consideration for the future, I hate to bother the two pair that are nest building. My next stop is the PMCA store to look at the traps which may be a good addition to my trying to shoot as many as possible. I'll get them one way or the other. Thanks again.

Bill

[Fred Kaluza~MI]

Bill, I suggest you simply bring a bag lunch and camp out near the rack as long as you can. He will either get used to you and move within shooting range or get discouraged at not being able to get close to your housing and go elsewhere. Or, try the scarecrow thing, get a lawnchair and some old clothes stuffed with newpaper and put a hat on the "head". When the Starling gets used to the scarecrow and flies off for nest material or water, replace the scarecrow with "you" and then blast that bugger when he shows up. Make sure the scarecrow has a pole that points towards the housing so you when you get in position, you won't look any different than what he's used to seeing. Get two of the same hats also. One for you and one for your "dummy".

[CraigMo.]

Can you get a shot from inside your house if you take a window screen off? Maybe sit in your car?

[starling shooter]

a .22 with a screen out is a deadly combination. If you don't have one dialed in, I'm sure you have know someone who does and would loan it to you.

The car works well too..as mentioned.

Starlings do get smart if you shoot at them more than once.

[Fred Kaluza~MI]

Dang, a .22 shot upwards from the ground will carry about a mile won't it? Yall must have some pretty big lots to be sure about what may be all the way out there.

[Guest]

Thanks to all for the tips. I had already considered the scarecrow idea and may use it this weekend. I'm an old target shooter and have a Winchester Model 51 Bull Barrel as well as a Remington 541T heavy barrel both with Leupold 20X Vari-X III's and Eley ammo if this is familiar to any of you. My concern is carry through and or possible ricochets off the gourd racks. I live in a very rural area but there are other houses and boat traffic on the river. I'm going to try to make do with a shotgun and or traps. Another idea I received from a local landlord is he keeps a .410 on his lap while mowing. His experiance has been they pay little attention to him while mowing and he's killed several that way. I'll keep ya'll posted as to any progress.

Bill

[Kyle Gregoire]

Dear BCowles, As long as you are able to use the shotgun, I would go out a door he cannot see you or hear you going out. Use the corner of your house or whatever cover you can find, and try to close in as fast as possible to get him, like live skeet shooting. Good Luck.

[Guest]

Friday evening 3 yellow bills landed on the gourd rack that had been closed for some time to move some Tree Swallows to a gourd on a Shepard's Crook. (The swallows built a nest in the provided gourd and have begun laying eggs so I opened up 4 gourds for some subbies that have been hanging around but haven't been able to get to the other gourd rack due to a very dominant ASY male.) Anyway, I killed one YB and obviously the other two flew off. As of Sunday, no more YB's have been spotted in the area, let alone on the gourd racks. I'm sure I haven't seen the last of them but have managed to make them feel most unwelcome.

As a side note the subbies are hanging around pretty much all morning long as well as off and on during the rest of the day but haven't stayed overnight as best I can tell. Got my fingers crossed! I'll also add that moving the TS's has worked perfectly. When I reopened the 4 gourds on the other rack, another TS tried entering and was promptly "run out of town" by the transplanted male.