Should Public sites have SREH ?

[landonn]

If so, What kind of SREH should I use? I plan on putting a T 14 or a Ceder Suite at a public site next year.

Thanks,
Landon

[starling shooter]

Starlings LOVE T14s. Yes, you should put SREH on them. I have a T14 at a site I manage. I only visited weekly. Each week I would shoot a half dozen. Finally gave up and went SREH. I have connelly entracnes. They stop 90% of the starlings. Starlings LOVE T14s.....so they try like heck to get in....

[Steve Kroenke]

We currently manage six satellite purple martin colonies and all use primarily crescent and some original excluder srehs. These sites are located in areas where starling competition is a potential significant issue so srehs are necessary. The martins have readily accepted the srehs at these colonies and nearly all starlings have been excluded. There have been a few rare cases where small female starlings have managed to enter standard crescent entrances in our Trio aluminum houses. All these starlings were destroyed and none caused any injuries to the martins.

So if your public site is located in or near urban/suburban areas which typically have large starling populations, then srehs will greatly deter starling competition problems. We have had success mainly with crescent entrances and have been using them for a number of years. There are other srehs such as the WDC, Conley 2, Excluder II, Modified Excluder, etc. We haven’t used any of these srehs in our satellite martin colonies but other folks have had success with them.

Good luck with your public martin colony site. We have raised MANY martins at our various satellite colonies.

Steve

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

There are many good SREH entrances, but there is a very important thing about them: THEY MUST be mounted so that the bottom of the SREH is approximately 1/8in or less from the top of the porch. If you mount the SREH entrances higher, starlings will easily manage to squeeze into the cavity.

[gwarnerjr]

I just finished my T-14 this year. It was a T-10 last year and I used the Clinger entrance with a tail prop on the bottom compartment and no porches. I think that without any porch there is no way a starling could get in the house. Now that sparrow is a whole different story!

[derral k sperry]

It has been my experience on Galveston Bay that porches are absolutely essential for exclusion of starlings. The reason is that without a porch the starling is able to swing up into the entrance with a lower profile than if it had to stand on a porch and try to compress its height enough to clear the upper edge of the sreh. I have seen this and have concluded the best design would be to have the bottom of the sreh opening flush with the surface of the porch. It is the height that starlings are not anatomically designed to deal with, not the width. Their legs are configured for swiveling at the hip level and not the knee so much, thus they can't "squat".

[John Miller]

Landon

Agree with Emil...and one other thing I learned from him. Try to make the site as open as possible. Really evaluate for open flyways too. Many unoccupied houses are located in what folks think is open, but if you assess it, there's usually a solid wall of trees far back on two or even three sides. Martins do nest in these types of sites, particularly in the south, but your chances of getting a colony started are greatly improved in a very open site.

John M

[JamesinIA]

Landonn

A friend of mine has several public sites that he takes care of and last year he added the Troyer tunnel with Conley II entrances on one of his T14s. That house had over 90% occupancy and this year he is adding the tunnels to all the housing that he manages. My first pair chose a Troyer horizontal gourd w/ConleyII tunnel and I will change the entrances on my T14 this winter. The PMCA sells those tunnels so take a look at them and see what you think. They are very easy to install.

Good luck on getting your first pair to stay this coming season!!
James

[landonn]

James,

I think for the T 14 or the Ceder Suite I will use the tunnels you told me about or I'll use the S&K tunnels.


Landon

[Bob Buskas]

Landonn, I don't know where you live, but use any good SREH cut exact to size. But most important is don't open your housing too early. The Starlings migrate north early and will become a real problem. Also a Starling trap works great with the SREH. Give that a try. GOOD LUCK!

[Kelly Applegate~MN]

For our public sites here in MN, we use T-14's outfitted with WDC-SREH plates. We have a lot of luck with them. We have had instances where if at a site both round holes & WDC's are offered, the martins chose the WDC's over round. Good luck with the public site(s), they are a key component to our plans to bring back PM's here in MN. Attached is a picture of one of our sites at the Rice Lake NWR in McGregor, MN. We successfully attracted a pair of martins in it's first year to an area where martins are fairly scarce.

[Dennis/N.Illinois]

I just finished and donated a T-14 with Excluder entrances to the Lake County Forest Preserve. The reason they were chosen is because the other T-14's in the Preserves near here all have the Excluder's on them and are at full capacity. If there are any other PM houses in the area you might want to check and see with type of entrances they have and use the same.

[landonn]

Dennis,

There are two colonies 10 and 5 miles from me. One of the colonies uses unmodified round hole trio houses and a couple of small gourds. The other colony has round hole super gourds and two unmodified S&K houses with crescent SREH's.


Landon,

[landonn]

Dennies,

Also that is a nice T 14 you built.

Landon,

[Dennis/N.Illinois]

Hum, I guess my direct answer is yes, public sites should use SREH's. The biggest problem public sites have is controlling sparrows and starlings. At most sites, shooting its frowned upon so trapping and SREH's are the only answer to control.

At my home site (which I can keep an eye on and shoot if needed)I'm offer a variety SREH's and a few round holes. I think by offering several choices I can entice a SY into staying by having a entrance they grew up with.

Thanks for the nice words on the new house. I hope the PM's will like it.

Good luck on your new site and I wish you many birds

[Joe Zorn]

landonn , For many years, all my housing has been home made. I hated using store-bought things on my earlier PM housing, so tried every variation I could think of to discourage them, other than shooting (I'm a terrible shot with poor vision).

Nothing I did worked better than SREH's with porches that were very close to flush with the bottom.

The only alternative was a 6 x 6 nest cavity. Starlings won't use those. So I use both SREH's and small rooms among my 4 poles.

You just can't do without the entrances, if you are not on site everyday to snipe at the Starlings.

Sparrows. There is not cure for them.

[Louise Chambers]

I agree that SREHs are the way to go for a public site, or weekend site. Many landlords prefer them for their home sites as well, others use a mix and some use rounds. House Sparrow control will still be needed, but it's nice to know the martins are safe from starlings.

New sites and SREHS can work beautifully. I think Kent Justus started his current site with all SREHS. Our new weekend site has mostly SREHs and a few rounds—one SY pair nested in a SREH gourd. They will use them, regardless of whether or not they are familiar with them.

Louise

[Tim in Arkansas]

Landonn:

I agree with the other responses you have received; a public or weekend site offers the best proection by using SREH openings. I also agree with Emil's advice that the porch should be no more than 1/8" from the bottom of the opening.

I would also suggest one additional safety precaution. I recall reading posts in previous years where lanlords managing a public site have found cases of wing entrapment. Since these locations are not monitored on a daily basis, discovery of wing entrapment usually results in the death of the trapped bird as well as any other martins trapped inside. If I were managing a public or weekend site, I would take the extra precaution of adding weatherseal tape to the inside of the SREH opening to reduce the possibility of wing entrapment.

Tim

[landonn]

Joe,

The pubilc site will not have 6x6 compartments. I plan on putting up a Cedar Suite and two gourds at the public site.

Tim,
Does the Weatherseal tape just stick on to the compartments or do you have to glue it to them?

Landonn

[Matt F.]