Starlings Breach SREH. Will Gunfire Scare Away Martins?

[Kenneth Hicks]

I have two starlings that figured out the crescent-entrance on one of my four excluder gourds. They are entering with no problem and began building yesterday and I began tearing out.

I have two excluder gourds with the crescent opening and two with the excluder opening. I am hesitant to block the opening for fear I would send them to the gourd with the other crescent opening where martins are building.

So it is time to shoot and kill. My concern is the noise of a gun shot. Has anyone had their martins scared away with a 22 rifle shot or with the noise of a 410 shotgun. I am ready to kill but don't want to spook the martins.

Kenneth

[Scully]

A local shooting range has martins, right by the tactical pistol course.

[Guest]

General reading would tell me it is unlikely that shooting would spook nestbuilding, in process. You could set a temporary perch on that one gourd, to give yourself, a few seconds to use the lessor, noise shot aiming seconds. A 177 pellet will do the job. A 22 cal. short will too. Even a CB cap will work if you are close enough.

My experience indicates that once eliminated the Starlings may stay away for some time. There may be a bird talk message passed. Part of that reason is that most others are nesting somewhere else and do not move about as much during the process..

[Guest]

Docgipe - We have a 410 up at the lake house that we use for shooting snakes. The martins only fly up and around for a short time and come back to the gourds/houses. It has not scared them away. Fortunately, martins are very tolerant of a lot of things. SHOOT THE STARLINGS!



Good luck this year


Lanell

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

When you shoot a 22, shotgun, or pellet gun, the martins will fly away, but most of them will be back on the housing in under 3 min or so. The more you shoot, the quicker they return after you shoot. Its the opposite with starlings, if you start shooting at them and miss, they often leave for an hour or so...

[Kenneth Hicks]

I felt that with many martins incubating eggs and many preparing to do so that a few gunshots would not deter them from their natural instincts.

I will probably use the 410 shotgun due to the fact that I am a rather poor shot.

Kenneth

[Guest]

Excellent question, Kenneth, thanks for posting it. Based on Emil and other's replies I shot two starlings yesterday with a 410, got 'em both.

They were perched on a cedar tree near the nest; I waited until they both flew across the yard and nailed them with nary a martin in sight.

The martins did hit the sky, flew about for around 2 minutes, and resumed their activities.

The doves, however, may not come back for awhile! They were not happy campers....

Sarah

[Guest]

I think the porches are too low on the crescent opening Excluder gourds if you put them where they tell you to. I think if you raise them to within 3/16" of the opening you'll have better luck keeping them out. I've shot a sparrow w/ a .22 inches away from a martin. The martin didn't even flinch-the sparrow did though-once or twice before bouncing in the grass. If you aren't a good shot, pick your shot carefully and with patience, you sure wouldn't want to hurt the good guys. The way my martins are always flying around this time of year, I'd never use a shotgun. Maybe you could try bird shot .22's to limit the chances of collateral damage. Good luck thinning the demon flock.

[Sigundo]

Everybody is right on the money with that... they WILL take flight the first few times, but they either get used to the noise or figure out that you're not shooting at them. I've never lost a martin because of the noise. Back when I could shoot straight, I ever shot a starling sitting on top of my martin house with a martin on either side, just a few inches away.

They stayed put and just watched the starling fall to the ground and then started cleaning their feathers again. Other than our colony founder that ran into the side of the martin house while singing to a potential mate (that he didn't get), they seem to be pretty smart birds. Well, we did have another one that completely missed the perch, but I think that was due to a sudden gust of wind. He was quite surprised by the chain of events, as he was in full landing prose and it took a couple feet of freefall before he could correct.

I can't shoot anymore, but when I was, they really didn't care any more once they got used to it. New arrivals would spook a couple times, but I think seeing the older birds not do anything, they learn even quicker to ignore it. But not my riding mower... they will NOT get used to that at all and complain every week on mowing day. I only ran into their pole ONCE over two years ago, and they won't forget...

[Kenneth Hicks]

I will probably wait until they are on the ground gathering nesting material to shoot them or when they go to a nearby tree.

Kenneth

[CUL Lou~Mich]

Kenneth. I've read of other landlords who use everything from pellet guns, to 12 guage shotguns. Most of them say the PMs don't even budge. Some however say their PMs follow the EUSTs to the ground, just a chattering away, as though to say "I told ya to leave, I told ya to leave." Then they'd go back up on their perch, and continue preening. As long as you are confident you can shoot the EUST without hitting the PMs, I'd say GO FOR IT. CUL Lou

[Kenneth Hicks]

Sigundo,

I agree with the mowing comment. I had them stirred up like a mound of fire ants the other day when I mowed. They calmed down after a while.
Maybe they realized I was going to be in the area for a lengthy time because I had let the grass get out of hand.

Kenneth

[flyin-lowe]

I shot a .22 the other day and one of my PM actually flew down about 2 feet in front of my face to see what I was doing. The other just sat on the house.

[klcretired]

Same here, I shoot, the PM's leave for a short short then come right back, I have been shooting for year's and it's always the same, they fly off then come back so like everyone has said ...Please shoot those Trash Beaks , Please.

[Guest]

Shoot away. We use a 22 and the martins will flush but come right back. Now, the dogs are a different story. They'll disappear. Good thing they're not hunting dogs!

Sheila

[RC Moser]

Kenneth IMO you need a good scope for the .22 rifle, CCI CB loads or shorts will be all you need unless you have an automatic. Sportmans Guide (sportsmansguide.com) has BSA 40MM scopes for 49 bucks and that's hard to beat with Adjustable objective lens (make sure you get one with adjustable objective lens so you can zero in the yardage for a clear target for use that has old/tired eyes).

Site your rifle in at about 12 yards Then Place you wooden target up about as high as the PM Gourds (usually up on a tree so the tree will stop the bullet if it goes through the wood target you use). Site it in again and A starling will be like shooting the side of the barn. When I miss it's cause I jerked when I pulled the trigger instead of squeezing.

[Craig Dyer]

My experience is like everyone elses. I shoot starlings & sparrows with a scope mounted Beeman .177 cal. pellet rifle. Even it makes a rather loud mechanical bang. Often the martins don't even flinch. Sometimes they fly off, circle once or twice & come right back to the housing. I shot a sparrow once & it dropped right in its tracks on the porch of my Trio. Within seconds a male martin grabbed it in it's beak & tossed it to the ground. As if to say "Take that you piece of %#*@!"

[Guest]

Neat Trick! I glued some cracked corn on the perch rods that hold my gourds. Epoxy gives them something to fuss with and holds the sparrow's attention, for an easy target. No need, to hurry the squeeze off. They aren't going anywhere with the epoxy holding the cracked corn. I have a bushel basket right under the spot where a good hit falls. I also have a two, for one, bet with a neighbor, for a basket shot. Presently, to date, I have three, of nine, that fell into the basket.

My repeating trap has only attracted a couple. It may do better as I learn how, to place it closer, to the natural bushy staging area, of the Sparrow. That may be a bit unfair because I zapped a few before they went in.

[Guest]

I nailed a female house sparrow yesterday with our noisy Gammo pellet rifle and the results were quite amusing. The martins jump/flew about 2' above their housing, landed in 5 seconds and about 5 martins stared at the deceased house sparrow on the ground while simultaneously turning their heads sideways. This lasted about a minute before they went about their business.

Don't worry about noise....just concentrate on getting rid of all scum beaks!

Sue
City by the Sea, TX

[Glen Webb Jr]

Most of my martins are used to the sound of the gun now. I've shot enough starlings in the last month that only a few of the martins fly off when I fire the gun. When I first started, they all bolt from the gourds, but now I will see little lady heads poking out of the gourds while a lot of the males remain motionless when I fire. In fact when the starling plummets to the ground, several of the martins and even tree swallows will take off after it and mob it all the way to the ground. If I wing the starling and it starts to hobble off before I get to it, adult males will repeatedly attack it. Kind of funny, but maybe it's a power trip for the martins!