Grackle removal - and return

[Guest]

Builder required two nests in our under construction eaves to be remved. We tried to do it ourselves, hoping to save 1 nest with eggs, and one with two hatched chicks (chicks??) and remove them to the pines about two lots away - only space anywhere near that had anyplace to put a nest off the ground. Don't want to dwell on it - but we were unsuccessful and have been miserable about it.
Next day, the grackles are back - and sharing the gourd rack perches with our four martins. Is there any kind of housing I can put up for these grackles to encourage them to abandon the eaves and the gourd rack? They are comical, beautiful, and apparantly determined. I don't want them to steal a snack out of the martins' gourds. I have read that they will do that.
Thanks for help.

[CUL Lou~Mich]

Mavou. Hmmm, I'd never heard of them nesting under eaves, nor in PM housing either one. I have bunches of them all summer, and never even saw one on my PM housing. I always figured they must use trees and bushes like Robins and Blue Jars. Yes, they have been known to have a snack from someones nests. CUL Lou

[Guest]

Mavou - Grackles are definitely nest builders in trees. I believe it was last year that the City of Houston had to put barricades around the trees downtown, because when the babies hatched they began to attack the people who walked by the trees. Those grackles actually drew blood.



good luck,

lanell

[Bob Rogers]

Mavou,
I get an occasional grackle at my sight. They generally will only perch for a short time before moving on. PM's don't seem to mind them. Looks like you have crescent openings; grackles won't be a problem. They are easier for roaming hawks to catch anyway