Starlings and Conley II entrance

Emil Pampell-Tx · Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:16 am

Bob, there are many thoughts but none are guaranteed. You may need to use several choices to see which work best. Until you start using more restrictive entances, the only good thought that I have is to purchase a good pellet rifle, practice about 500 shots with it, and when you can hit a target the size of a nickel at 30 to 40 yards, you will be wasting a lot of time. The good pellet rifle that is very accurate, and you can hit with it, is a good investment. The starlings usually give you a big easy target, but the sparrows are harder, they hop around so much and are so small.

The only entrances that I would try if we had a lot of starlings would be the Dually or the Excluder II. What works best for me are traps around the perimeter, then very few starlings get to the gourds.

Bob Fraser · Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:32 am

Thanks Emil.

Next year, I will have traps around.

I have a shed about 15-20 feet from that gourd rack. Of course, when I go into the yard, the starling is gone. I'm thinking about buying the smalles pet door I can find ----- (you know those doors that dogs or cats can go outside and come back inside thru).... I was thinking if I put one of them in the side of my shed at a good height, it would make an excellent gun port. When the starling showed up,I'd only be maybe 20 ft from him....

might work on that today..

DornCounty · Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:25 am

traps are a must.. them starlings are so eager to nest they jump right in.

Allan Day · Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:05 pm

I like to let the Starlings get nice and comfortable, then I just go down put the trap on and I gottem in 10 minutes. Usually that easy! I can also then walk directly under the rack and shoot them from 10 ft with my pellet gun. It's even hard fo me to miss from that range

Bob Fraser · Tue May 01, 2012 3:33 pm

Maybe success!

I went toLowe's and bought the smallest Cat door they had. Cut a 6 5/8 inch square hole in the side of my shed and installed the Cat door upside down (that way, the flap falls down instead of being in the way).

I had a pellet gun but haven't been too successful with it at distance and am very reluctant to scare the martins. I know it takes practice to get to be a marksman with these things, but don't want to be blasting away in my back yard for a couple hours scaring martins and everything else in the neighborhood.

But --- this cat door in the side of the shed gave me a gunport maybe 20 feet from the gourd that the starling was building in. He showed up within 10 minutes of me finishing the door. I shot at him and the way he took off, I'm pretty sure I got him. I couldn't see too much thru the cat door and by the time I got outside the shed, no sign of him - I'm pretty sure he was wounded..... But.... He hasn't been back all day... and neither has his girlfriend......

I feel a lot better with that "gunport" being right there next to the gourd rack... and I do have a Troyer tunnel trap on the way.....

Hopefully, this takes care of it....

Thank you everyone for your suggestions...