Do I have a new specie of martins???

[frankarendt]

Been watching my gourds for two weeks now,have 3 repeating starling traps up..Every, and I mean every starling that lands on the gourds is immediately attacked by at least 5 birds that literally drive the starling into the ground!!!The poor starling escapes into one of the traps,and that's all she wrote!!My martins are so aggressive!!!Is the new group of birds changing their easy ways??Hope so!! frank

[Glen Webb Jr]

Two or three years ago, my martins started doing this after one of my females was killed by a starling. It was only attacked by the martins nesting on and next to the gourd cluster where the female was killed. Before I could finally kill it, the starling was going around and forcing its way into gourds. I think the martins caught on real quick and as much as the fought and pulled at the starling, it still managed to cause them much grief. Man, I was so mad once I finally shot it, I was shaking. But I will never forget the half a dozen martins that fought that sucker to the ground. There were more than a few times I heard the starling squeal, but it never gave up.