Starlings Getting In

[DAVE]

I too have had Starlings in my Gourds, I have all Colony entrances. So I tryed something. Instead of having the Gourds swing from side to side I hung them so they would swing front and back. No more starling breaches, seems that they don't like this type of swinging. As soon as they land on the porch they jump right off. The Martins took right to this swing as if nothing ever changed. What I use is #9 Galvanized Wire, this is a real stiff wire. I ran a quarter inch tube through top of Gourd. Bent wire up then caulked the tube and wire to keep out water. Soo far soo good. Hope this will help someone.
Dave

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

very interesting, I never heard this before. Do you have a lot of starlings? Hope it continues to work for you. A light gourd may tilt more than a heavy gourd. On a heavy gourd like a supergourd, the gourd would not even move so that makes me wonder if it would work. What kind of gourds, and what size do you have.

What seems to work best for me are several traps around the perimeter of the colony, they try the SREH, then fly to the traps. most try the traps before they try the SREH.

[DAVE]

I have all Natural Gourds rangeing from 9 to 11 inches. As for the movement I put on counter balance weights,I use wheel weights like you use on your car. All of my Clean outs are on the back. This helps in the wind also. I have a lot of Starlings here. My two neighbors have Out Buildings with lots of good spots for them. Some don't return home . As far as traping I haven't had much luck with this Repeating Trap. I have read some Post's of House traps you put on a pole but haven't found a good set of Plans to build from. I hate to spend money for Prints and not have the trap to work well like this Repeating trap I bought.
Thanks for the Reply Dave

[DakotaLady]

I would be very worried that in a storm the eggs will be thrown from the gourds with them swinging in that direction (front to back). It happened to me...

[DAVE]

Dakotalady! I thought this also but a good friend of mine in Willis Texas who got me started with Martins said no problem. He said that Martins are pretty smart in building nest in a lot of different cavities and the adapt very well. I have had my Gourds up for 5 years with no problems. I live on top of a small hill and we do get some pretty good west winds. When the wind gets up to 25 mile per hour I lower them to about 8 feet from ground. They don't mind this height. So far so good.
Dave

[Allan Day]

You might be onto something. I have two racks. One super 36 system expanded to 48 and one circular "wagon wheel" rack with 2 rows of 12.

The Super system has all gourd arms that are perpendicular to the arms of the rack. This allows no swaying from front to back. I've had numerous breaches on this rack. All entrances are troyer tunnels with Connelly II entrances.

The " wagon wheel" rack I use 75lb zip ties to attach the gourds to the rack. There are 12 naturals, and twelve excluder gourds. The gourds swing freely from front to back. To date, I have not witnessed anyt Starling breaches on this rack. The entrances are excluder II on the excluder gourds, and excluder on the naturals.

Could be the different entrances or it could be the swaying gourds, but I've had no breaches on the swaying gourds...

[DAVE]

Allan! If you look close at their nest you will probably see a higher mud dam on your free swinging Gourds. I'm sorry I forgot to mention this. When I changed over this is what I noticed. Like I said Martins are pretty smart Engineers .
Dave

[Louise Chambers]

Allan,

If all breaches are with Conley II entrances, and none with Excluders and Excluder IIs, it sounds like it's the entrances rather than the swing that are the deciding factor. Try raising porches on your Conley IIs and see if that helps.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Allan, I agree with Louise. I really find it unlikely that the tilt of the gourd is in any way associated with starling resistance. I did not ever check that, so it could be true. If it is true, then it would require a very lightweight gourd, but a heavy gourd will not tilt enough when a starling lands on it to make any difference, thats just my opinion.

[John A Green Jr]

I'll chime in. I have 18 stationary gourds and 4 swinging BO-9's. I have seen the starling lite on the non moving ones and look in but never the swinging BO-9's. Never really had thought about it till I read the post. May be something?

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

Or maybe??? the Bo9 is too small for a starling to like, they like large gourds better than small

[DAVE]

I have noticed that when a Starling lands he lands heaver than the Martins. So this spooks them and they jump off. They did not expect this kind of movement, and I also have roofs over the Entrances so this knock on the head might have something to do with it also. All I know is that they never try the 2nd time. They do move around the rack and some times the Martins will chase them off .
Dave