STAR(ling) WARS!

[PaulaZ]

Dear Professor BirdBrain,

May the force be with me! Last weekend, I pulled nests and eggs out of a neighbor's boat winch, a neighbor's gutter, and a woman's T-14 houses.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...g?t=1337772590

I am ready to either pull my hair out or make an omelette!

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ggsweektwo.jpg

On the bright side, I think about the 57 Starling eggs I harvested in the past two weeks and that works out to a substantial little flock that will never be hatched.

I think the Starling Wars in my Purple Martin rigs are finally dying down. They made an especially grand stand the third week of April in the rig on East Point on South Bass Island.

My part in the battle involves trapping the adults in my rigs. The rig at Scheeff had 17 try to use it this spring. I have a couple tricks I use that I have adapted from trapping House Sparrows on Bluebird Trails. Fake eggs that look like House Sparrow eggs placed inside nest just inside of the trip mechanism (encouraging them to push through and get rid of the offending egg) seem to work great when using inbox traps. The new Troyer tunnel trap (lightweight aluminum slide) is helped by taping a couple quarters on the front to weigh it down a bit so Starlings can't push under and out as easily.

This is a long meandering e-mail to get to my real question regarding the Purple Martins' part in the Starling Wars. Beneath the Purple Martin rig last week I found a dead male Starling and next to him was his severed head. Will Purple Martins do this? At the beginning of the nesting season, I found a dead Tree Swallow with head pecked in at the base of the rig also. I had assumed it was a House Sparrow that did that, but was it a Purple Martin per chance?

Your Sterling Starling Student,
Madame WingNut

[PaulaZ]

Update on the Starling Wars. Things are finally winding down in the 28 T-14 compartments. I don't have the time or wherewithal to trap in these rigs. Starlings are giving up, but too late for Purple Martins to nest.

Here are the T-14 Starling Stats.

5-19: 28 eggs removed; 6 young dispatched; 28 nests or starts removed
5-28: 24 eggs removed; 24 nests or starts removed
6-2: 4 eggs removed; 28 nests or starts removed
6-10: 23 eggs removed; 27 nests or starts removed
6-16: 0 eggs; 13 nests or starts removed

Good Starling management (i.e. trap them ASAP) has a different outcome. At my 24-gourd rig at other end of island, Starlings made grand attempt to use 6 compartments on the third week of April. You can see above how persistent they are if you simply removed nests and eggs. Trapping them out in the gourd rig has resulted in all 24 compartments being used by Purple Martins.

Bluely Yours,
Madame WingNut