[/quote]Scully wrote:I clip just the tail feathers and leave the wings alone.So with the Sparrows, you are completely clipping their tail feathers back to the nub and it appears the lower half or ends of the wing feathers? I can see that they can fly.
With starlings Bernie Nikolai (?? spelling?) up in Canada has posted he found that just removing the eggs would cause a starling pair to desert the colony. I always figured the stakes were too high to risk trying just that.
Also with starlings I believe there are more martin fatalities than one finds in the gourd. Perhaps ten years back I recall an injured ASY male sitting hunched up among the foliage of a nearby tree at the time of a starling invasion, seems like it would be very easy for a martin to lose an eye in those struggles.
Mike
Hi Mr. Scully,
Thank you for the information, You gave them a very detailed "hair cut" that makes them feel silly as they look so they stop.
Thanks for the further Starling information which is not what I might have otherwise considered. There is no reason that an injured Martin would not fly off and die somewhere else.
yet another reason for zero tolerance of these things at a Martin site.
I witnessed a squabble where a Martin came back to his gourd where a Starling was coming out. They both flew off the porch and down to the ground momentarily where I saw the Starling attempt to peck the Martin in the face while toe to toe with its long ice beak.
I do not believe the Starling got him in this instance because the Martin kept his distance and backed off quickly since they were in open space and constant motion. This helped the Martin. In closed space and that Martin is done. Its like dueling a swordsman with a pair of scissors. They are dangerous and should be given no reason to stay around.
I had posted earlier in the season about this where Martins cannot even be within striking radius of that ice pick beak after seeing this.
I shot, trapped, and pulled out, until I was able to get the Lewis Modification
up with the help of much instruction for folks here and Mr. Lewis himself.
Why it is good to hear from you is because you have tested and observed a lot and readily share that which I appreciate ( even if you get your "annual chewing" for some of it!
) . Mr. Lewis is like this with his SREH modification and man did it make a difference. Not even one breach since then. Credit to Mr. Lewis and other folks like Mark that instructed. Thanks for sharing