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Nestboxes (Gourds)In addition to Messages that have appeared in the Bluebird Mailing Lists on this topic, the following are on the Audubon Society of Omaha website: Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 16:56:42 -0600 When you read that subject line, you probably think, "the nut has been running with that Purple Martin crowd again." Well, actually, you are sort of right. There are things to ponder over there. Has anyone on this list ever used gourds for Bluebirds? I never hear it mentioned. I keep hearing the gourd advocates say things like the HOSP don't like gourds because they swing, etc. I noticed on their forum, a post mentioning Blues and gourds, but have not heard from the author yet. Another item the Martin people are mentioning is a crescent shaped hole, which several think deters HOSP. Think of a 3" diameter circle, then cut it in half with a line drawn across horizontally. Then measure down 1 3/16" from the top, and draw another horizontal line. That space from the line to the top of the circle is the hole. The hole would have to be 1 1/2" for the Bluebird because the body is wider than I martin, I believe. I am asking these questions because our list members seem to be more realistic with claims than some others. AFA gourds go, I realize they can cost even more than a nest box, and not everyone on the list has room to grow them. However, I bought some nice looking plastic ones for $3.50/each today. Bill Darnell, never ceasing to question and wonder, Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 19:26:59 -0500 Bill, I tried to get martins for years. I am in a "fair" location, so I put up a wooden house with 10 partitions on a pole so I could lower it to check. I hung a gourd on each corner of the house. The house was 18 ft off the ground. I did have bb check out the house, but never saw any interest in the gourds. A nearby nursery has bb nest in a martin house almost every year. In 10 years neither one of us ever got martins. One man about 5 miles from here gets them by the 100's every year. I had to show my wife, cause she was beginning to think they didn't exist. Lynn near Reading Pa. Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 21:23:02 -0600 Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas 1971 was a bumper crop year for my gourds. My records show I made and hung 270+ gourds the next year. They work better for Martins since they only have one nest per year. Bluebirds tend to fill up the gourds but they do let you know the area where bluebirds are nesting and the gourds can be replaced with wood boxes. The plastic gourds that can be taken apart would be OK but the regular gourds are too hard to monitor and clean. Yes House Sparrows use gourds especially the bigger ones over 8" cavity. Crescent entrance hole: You might note that Purple Martin landlords are using this and an oval entrance hole no larger than 1&3/16" tall X 2&1/2" wide and this is only Starling resistant! Purple Martins are larger than bluebirds! Many, many posts were telling about Starlings entering and killing martins going through this narrow slot..... Remember the Peterson oval entrance is 3/16" bigger than the ones they are having so much trouble with Starlings being able to enter! We should all stick to a round entrance hole no larger than 1&9/16" to be sure Starlings cannot enter our boxes. KK Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 16:47:08 EST To all who are, like me, falling in love with purple martins... I have a question on the pricing of gourds. Does anyone know the cheapest place to purchase plastic gourds or any kind for that matter. I am looking for a spot on my place to erect a Martin house. Most likely will be purchasing it from the Purple Martin Society. Thank you to all who reply. Kevin Bloom Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 21:37:18 -0800 Making bird houses from gourds seems to be a craze out here. Do gourds make good bird houses?
Mon, 11 Sep 2000 10:29:56 -0500 More info and ideas on gourds can be found at www.purplemartin.org . Look for
articles archives. Sorry to be so long. I will keep posted on my gourd
experiments. Hanging would be a snap because a natural gourd is so light. Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2000 11:46:07 -0500 From: "Brian Scarlett" scarlett"at"shore.net Subject: Gourd Housing I have obtained a large, hollow gourd which is supposed to be adequate housing for bluebirds. It has holes in the bottom for drainage, no entry perch but a stick inserted horizontally at the top for hanging and a one and a half inch entry hole. Is any self respecting bluebird going to want to live in it or have I been had? A.M.S., coastal Mazzzchusetts Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 19:38:43 EST Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 08:45:10 -0600 I read Bill's recent Message about using gourds as birdhouses and would like to share what I do with gourds. A few years back I grew a bunch of gourds (ended up with a couple hundred of them) because I wanted to try to attract Purple Martins with them. I got only a few gourds that were large enough, in my opinion, to use for Purple Martins. So I started painting the rest of them with nature-type scenes and various birds to use for decoration and for gifts. I also left a bunch of them plain (or stained them) and put a couple of coats of poly on them to see if any backyard birds would use them. The House Wrens really took to the hanging gourd houses, occupying almost everyone I put out. Since I have a problem with House Wrens along some parts of my bluebird trail (near timber edges), I decided to hang a bunch of gourds along these timber edges so (hopefully) the House Wrens wouldn't take over my bluebird nestboxes. For the most part, the House Wrens took the gourds and left the nestboxes alone. There were still a couple of nestboxes that had dummy stick nests built in them so I am going to move these further away from the timber this season. I found this is an inexpensive way to deter House Wrens from nestboxes in areas where House Wrens are a problem. Jay Gilliam Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 12:23:20 -0600 Several have written since I posted the mail about my spring cleaning asking about "gourds to birdhouses." Some are even interested in Purple Martins. Here is a site which takes the "gourd to birdhouse" from the first step to the last in easy written and pictorial form. Although it is done here primarily for martins, just remember you will probably be using smaller gourds, and a Bluebird sized hole, which is about the only change. Remember, I am not advocating switching from boxes to gourds, but it seems to me to be a cheap, easy thing to try,not only for bluebirds but other cavity nesters as well. Use your imagination! Gourds seem to be a good substitute for "hanging boxes." This site is done by Chuck Abare, a birder who puts Purple Martins and Bluebirds welfare at the top! http://home.hiwaay.net/~yankee1/canopy.htm Enjoy, Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 20:12:10 EST Bill, I have a bb gourd that I was given as a Christmas gift. It is just like the super gourds that I have for my Martins. I can't wait to see if it will attract my Bb's. I just put it up today. Pat Date: Tue, 20 Feb 2001 23:45:00 -0500 (EST) Hi Bill and all; Your discussion on using gourds for birdhouses has been interesting since I'm in the process of completing a gourd housing unit.One question I have is -- are Martins compatable with Bluebirds ? I have an idea that they are since my neighbors Barnswallows (about 1000 ft. away ) come down to my place when I'm mowing the lawn and make sweep after sweep---and the Blues dont seem to mind a bit. Another point --- Last winter about this time ,I was cleaning the seeds out of some gourds which were from the previous summers crop ; but had been outside on the trellis all winter--so I thought they were dry. When I dug the seeds out they were damp and a pungent odor was present--undaunted I kept on with the task. As a result I ended up with a king size "high" that lasted for several hours. And the warning label didn't allude to this toxicity at all. Is this a common problem, or do I have a strain of gourds that contain a controlled substance? George N E Ohio Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 07:23:04 -0600 Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas From 19651972 I used various styles of gourds for bluebirds almost exclusively. I was not allowed to use power saws to cut boards and had no money for wood anyway. Bluebirds would use gourds readily down to sizes smaller than 4" round cavities. Some gourds were even 3" & really placed for chickadees but were also used by bluebirds. These were scattered around nearby farms and when hung from low hanging branches of large trees in open fields (six to eight feet off the ground), the gourds often contained bluebird nests at the end of summer. These were a hang up and let nature take it's course sort of operation. I did go around and knock the wasp nests out of them on occasion. I never cleaned them but hung up new ones the next year leaving the old ones up. Some trees ended up with 3 or 4 gourds in various stages of decline. I did see in winter once that all 4 gourds on a massive oak had roosting birds in them on a single evening just past sundown.1972 my records show I hung up 279 gourds. They do contain various molds and mildews inside and outside so you could possibly have a reaction when cleaning them although I never did. It takes almost a full year for gourds to dry completely! We hung larger gourds (6"12") for Purple Martins from the four corners of our three wood martin houses and often had bluebirds either nesting in the gourds or the main house along with about 100 purple martins with very little problems. For those people with active martin houses if you mount a wood bluebird box with a 5"x5" bottom and standard 6" 7" deep floor to bottom of hole to the martin pole "at" eye level you can often catch all of the house sparrows in this box without lowering the whole martin house to remove a sparrow nest. The martins will often drive the sparrows to use the lower box and often the sparrows will prefer the box with the smaller sized hole. KK Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 07:22:10 -0600 ... Gourds ferment sometimes, and they have been known to actually explode! They can smell awful at a certain time, and if you try to dry them in the basement or anyplace inside the house, you are sure to get an unpleasant smell. I have never heard of a "high" though! :-) Gourds are a fun plant and pretty easy to grow. They need fertile soil, and adequate moisture, and the larger ones need a long growing season. Chuck Abare's Purple Martin site has a lot of great gourd info. http://home.hiwaay.net/~yankee1/ Here is a better link to Chuck's pages for turning a gourd into a birdhouse. Just remember to use a Bluebird sized hole! Bill http://home.hiwaay.net/~yankee1/birdhous.htm Date: Mon, 11 Jun 2001 20:34:57 -0400 Hi guys: I just received today a Bluebird SuperGourd set with hanging post from the PMCA. The link is http://www.purplemartin.org/shop/Otherhouses1.html , and just click on the Bluebird SuperGourd and Hanging Post icon under the photo. This seems to be a great artificial gourd for Bluebirds and makes for quick nest checks. It is white to help with heat, etc. The PMCA make the best artificial gourds for Purple Martins, and this seems to be great also. It is expensive compared to alot of Bluebird housing, but... Let me know what you think after you check it out. I will let you know how the Bluebirds accept it. Thanks, Robert Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 07:09:06 -0500 Has anyone started using the Bluebird Supergourds that PMCA is offering on their web site? I'm going to get one and try it. PMCA said it was approved by NABS. Dottie, Brown County, Indiana Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 09:46:16 EDT Hi, I have the Bluebird super gourd. My Bb's have shown (so far) no interest in it. However the Purple Martins seem very interested. They just don't understand that the hole is just to small for them to enter. lol This is my first year using one and I only have one pair of Bb's so I can't say one way or the other if the Bb's will accept one. I hope they will! Pat From: "tmeier"
tmeier"at"bright.net Hi! We live in the country a few miles from Lima, Ohio. Several years ago I grew birdhouse gourds and put them out with wren size holes. I had quite a few wrens take up residence for a few years, then just left the gourds in place. They got pretty beat up. This spring, in a very small gourd whose hole had grown larger over the years, I had a pair of bluebirds decide to nest there. This is in a tree about 20 feet from our front door, right next to our driveway. I could't believe it. They raised 2 broods this summer and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them from my front window. Every morning when I go out to get the morning paper there are 3 to 8 bluebirds sitting on the utility wire. I'm anxiously awaiting next year to see if they come back as I've gotten several bluebird houses and hope to have them occupied! This was the first time in the 8 years we've lived here that I've ever notived bluebirds in our area. Trish Meier From: "tmeier"
tmeier"at"bright.net Mandy, I have my gourds wired to the tree so they don't move around. It get pretty
windy out here, so this method works best for me. Trish Meier From: "Bonnie A. Yeager"
dement"at"frognet.net Has anyone tried a Super Gourd bluebird nest box? If so, what did you think of it? Check it out on the following web site: http://shop.purplemartin.org/shopsite/purplem/supergourdb.html Fred Yeager From: "Dottie, Hickory Hollow, Brown County, Indiana"
yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net Yesterday I put up a Bluebird supergourd 15 feet from the Bluebird nest box by my house. Mr. Bluebird has been coming almost every day to guard "his" nest box. I wonder what he will think when he sees this new thing. Decisions, decisions. We had our first Bluebird Club meeting for the year last week and I took my new Bluebird Supergourd to show everyone. Everyone found it most interesting and are wondering if I will get Bluebirds to nest in it. I told them I would let them know next meeting who decides to make it "home". Maybe a Tree Swallow will. But that's OK as I'm hoping for the "Trio". I also got up the Petersen's box that I won at the Bluebird Club picnic last year. Paired it with another Bluebird box that I had trouble with last year. A Tree Swallow chased off the mom Bluebird which left four eggs abandoned. The Tree Swallow put one of the "feathers from Heaven" right on top of the eggs. I took the feather out but Mom BB never came back. My "death trap" martin house has been remolded into six compartments instead of twelve. Nice and big. Two brand new crescent holed supergourds are hanging on "arms" on each side. Dawnsong is playing and the sun is up. The Martins are really "talking". Wonder what the other birds think. Wild Birds Unlimited (Columbus, IN) told me that the manufacturer has quit making these kind of martin houses. I just checked the Purple Martin site and Martin scouts were seen in Evansville and St. Joseph, Indiana (south of me) on February 25. So they are getting close. My husband heard a scratching sound yesterday coming from a drainpipe and a Starling had gotten trapped in there. My husband got him out and he sure was a happy bird. He also found a dead one in there, tho. I saw "my" Red Shouldered hawk yesterday as I was leaving to go to Church. I think it was the female again as it came over the lake and flew around the side of the house--probably coming back to the same tree where it has a good view of the feeder tray. A smorgasbord? The Hummingbirds should be arriving next month. Have to stock up on sugar. Good Birding, Dottie, Hickory Hollow Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 06:56:05 -0700 (PDT) Hi all, A sprawling loose EABL nest is in a super gourd that has a Starling resistant crescent shaped entrance hole. This is the 3rd nest this year for this particular pair of EABL (4 eggs in the nest). There were plenty of nestboxes available and this pair had used two different nestboxes previously before choosing the gourd. Out of the 16 gourds available, 8 are natural and 8 plastic. All but 3 gourds had standard entrance holes for PUMA. She chose the smaller crescent shaped entrance hole.... Pretty smart Mom. Have a good day Bob Sitarski a.k.a The Doctor ...Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 17:41:18 -0700 (PDT) Hey all, I am trying to start a Purple Martin colony in Indiana. Last year
TRES took over two of three gourd racks (8 gourds per rack). This year I paired
single gourds with nestboxes and only put up two gourd racks. I had hoped to
attract the TRES to the single gourds instead of the gourd racks. Amazingly, the
EABL appear to be nesting in two of the single gourds (mounted at 8 feet high)
even though there is a nestbox (mounted at 6 feet high) less than 10 feet away.
This has been an extremely surprising Spring so far on the contracted Indiana
trail. Bob Sitarski a.k.a The Doctor... Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 12:40:40 -0400 I've done a simple conversion to the entrance hole of my gourds by using a length of PVC pipe with an 1 ½" I.D. and a caulking gun to cement the pipe in the 2" entrance hole. It seems to be very strong. Now will need to see if the BB accept these gourds as readily as wooden homes. Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 12:43:55 -0400 I am trying Plastic supergourds this year that I have modified with an 1½" entrance hole. Will I have better success I attracting BB if I prefill the gourds with some grass or should I leave them empty and let the birds do all the work? From: "Dottie, Hickory Hollow, Brown County, Indiana"
yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net I have a BB supergourd up for two seasons now. It's paired with a regular BB nest box. So far the Bluebirds have ignored it and took the regular BB nest box. Tree Swallows did the same thing, ignored the supergourd and took a BB nest box. Dottie, Hickory Hollow From: "Bill Darnell" bdarnel3"at"bellsouth.net My experience using plastic gourds for Martins is it really seems to help if you put some pre-nesting materiel inside. I use either pine needles, or cedar shavings. I have never had Bluebirds in plastic, but a friend who uses some "Sliding Silos" which are plastic, swears by pre-nesting materiel. I have no scientific basis for this, but it seems the birds like traction for their feet and hard plastic gives none. Bill From: Evelyn Cooper, emcooper"at"bayou.com I would like some in put on putting out gourds for Bluebirds and other cavity nesting birds. I would like all the pros and cons. I know we promote nestboxes and I've had a request to help with gourds, but I told the lady we do nestboxes. I can think of several reasons against them on my own, but want to hear some of yours. One I can think of is where it is placed (predators) I saw one hanging under the overhang of a roof and it had a clutch of Bluebirds in it. It would take a lot of doing for a predator to get to it, but it would be possible. I was thinking snakes when I said it would take some doing for it to get to it. I don't have House Sparrows and Starlings and they would be very happy to nest in it. Evelyn From: Dottie, Hickory Hollow, Brown County, Indiana, yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net People put them hanging from trees here. I haven't heard of a snake getting into a gourd but I'm sure it is quite possible. Dottie, Hickory Hollow Brown County, Indiana From: Evelyn Cooper, emcooper"at"bayou.com You must not have snake problems like we do. Also, I have squirrels in my back yard that climb down the limb to the feeder and I saw one hit the ground and feeder fell too. Anything to nest in hanging on a limb, would definitely be snake food where I live. Evelyn Cooper Delhi, LA. From: Keith & Sandy
Kridler, txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net Gourds were cheap at one time but now they often cost more than a home made wood nestbox. You can't clean out the natural gourds very easily for bluebirds. Wasps really like to build a nest up in the neck of gourds. Limited ways to mount the gourd. Thinner walls nearly always mean less insulation properties. It takes a full year to grow and dry them and no guarantee of a crop. Most of the cavity nesting birds will use them. Squirrels like to enlarge the holes in them. They can last for years but large predators can tear most of them apart. They are very light and easy to carry. They would make a starter box & if you got cavity nesting birds you could replace the gourd with a nestbox the next year. I made gourd bird houses by the hundreds when I was young and you can make one with a hole saw and a hand drill in just a few minutes. KK From: Tony Berg, w1vah"at"yahoo.com Plastic
gourds for bluebirds are available as an alternative to natural gourds. One
model is shown at From: Dottie, Hickory Hollow, Brown County, Indiana [mailto:yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net] From: USAjs88"at"aol.com [mailto:USAjs88"at"aol.com] Has anyone ever had any luck using the SuperGourd bluebird gourd. Its sold at the PMCA's website. http://www.purplemartin.org/shop/catalog.html J.S. Dillon From: Dottie, Hickory Hollow, Brown County, Indiana [mailto:yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net] Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 9:47 PM Subject: Re: SuperGourd bluebird gourd Yep, I have a BB supergourd paired with a BB nest box. The BB's have never taken it but the Tree Swallows like it. I got it from PMCA and have it hanging on a shepherds hook. Dottie, Hickory Hollow From: Vito and Linda Schiavone [mailto:nanuk"at"epix.net] Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 10:43 AM Subject: Bluebird gourd Has anyone tried using gourds for bluebird housing, such as the bluebird SuperGourd? If so, did you have any luck? I've seen these on the internet, and was wondering if they worked. The company states that they are approved by the NABS. Any info would be great. From: Bruce Burdett [mailto:blueburd"at"verizon.net] Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 11:34 AM Subject: Re: Bluebird gourd Linda, Bruce Burdett, SW NH From: Evelyn Cooper [mailto:emcooper"at"bayou.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 11:48 AM Subject: RE: Bluebird gourd From what I understand the Super Gourd is used by many people. Gourds grown from seed are not recommended. However, I have a cute story. My grandson and his wife bought their first He got a ladder and climbed up and cleaned them out this spring, pulled the Evelyn Cooper From: Chuck Jensen [mailto:cjensen"at"dts9000.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 12:25 PM Subject: RE: Bluebird gourd Bruce, Yes, they can be easily inspected. The newer PM gourds have a screw lid molded in that's about the size of gallon mayonnaise jar-5". PMs love gourds and TRES will take to them to a degree, but I've not heard any BB nesting in them reported. Of course, the PM landlords jack them 15'-20' in the air and don't open them until the martins arrive, so they aren't trying too hard to attract them! Chuck From: Bruce Burdett [mailto:blueburd"at"verizon.net] Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 3:27 PM Subject: Re: Bluebird gourd Chuck, Linda, et al, Bruce Burdett From: Dottie, Hickory Hollow, Brown County, Indiana [mailto:yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net] I just found four BB eggs in my BB supergourd that hangs on a shepherd's hook. Dottie, Hickory Hollow From: Linda [mailto:linyl"at"alltel.net] What does your BB super gourd look like?--drainage holes, ventilation, etc.? From: Dottie, Hickory Hollow, Brown County, Indiana [mailto:yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net] I have another BB nest. That makes four BB nests with three nest having five BB eggs each. The last nest was built in the BB supergourd which is paired with a BB box so the TRES will have to take the box--if they come back this year. Dottie, Hickory Hollow From: Keith & Sandy Kridler [mailto:txbluebirder"at"sbcglobal.net] Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 8:10 AM Subject: gourd birdhouse experiment Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, Texas 80's *F during the day 60's at night. We are seeing Luna moths every couple of nights. Thousands of crane flies each night, June bugs are already active. If you stand under elm trees the leaf roller caterpillars are dropping down out of these trees on silken threads by the hundreds. Earthworms and night crawlers are under every pile of leaves. We built a 20 foot by 20 foot grape arbor for a doctor this past winter. I installed 6 different sized gourd birdhouses hanging on the arbor with the gourds 10 feet apart down two sides 7 feet or higher off the ground. Gourds ranged in size from 4" round to 8" round to 12" bottoms. Depth was 8" to 4" Nice thing about gourds is that in the south you can grow them by the hundreds with a little water. They come in all different sizes and styles so that if you want you can experiment with all different floor sizes and depths. You have to check through the entrance hole for egg and baby bird counts. We use them as disposable nestboxes and the old ones filled with old nests can be moved and rehung in fence rows for use by field mice, bumble bees or wasps. You can move old gourds to the deep woods and these will be re-used by flying squirrels or other species of squirrels if the gourds are large enough. If you have a successful nesting you can put up wood nestboxes nearby or simply leave the old gourd and add another close by. In large oak trees way out in the middle of pastures I have had three gourds on one tree used during one season by bluebirds. Gourds seem to be very popular roosting sites for chickadees and titmice. We planted 110 hills of gourds on the back fence the last two years using 500 feet of drip irrigation. This allowed our Master Gardner group to give away more than a 1,000 bird house gourds last year with 2,000 sheets of bluebird information printed on both sides. KK From: Dottie [mailto:yumyumkatts"at"voyager.net] Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 11:01 AM Subject: FW: gourd birdhouse experiment I just put up two supergourds yesterday paired for BB's and Tree Swallows. I have BB supergourds up already for the last few years and BB's have nested in them and seem to like them. I have my BB supergourds on shepherd's hooks. The only bad thing is that I ... Dottie, Hickory Hollow From: Duane Rice [mailto:drbirdsong4"at"hotmail.com] Dottie, From: Tree Greenwood [mailto:doctree"at"crosslink.net] On Wed 28 Mar 2007 at 07:10, "Keith Kridler" Hi, Keith and everyone, You can grow 'birdhouse' and other large gourds up north with a little extra effort. Black plastic over hills will warm the earth early and allow a good crop of gourds except in the far north. I know of a couple of folks in southern Canada who start vines in greenhouses in paper or peat pots to prevent transplant shock (Gourds do NOT like their roots disturbed). > .. They come in all different sizes and styles so that if you want you You can also snip off most of the smaller gourds to get a few really large ones with thick walls. That's my usual practice since I grow them primarily for Purple Martin housing. I invariably miss a few and have some smaller ones for Wrens. > You have to check through the entrance hole for egg and baby bird Unless you add access ports. I used to use tops cut off of cat food and gallon mayonniase jugs but now buy them http://www.sk-mfg.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=SMIOTBPBH&Product_Code=AP&Category_Code=PMAcc If I start with a large, thick-walled gourd, I generally many years of service from it. Actually, I always break them before they wear out or rot. Read http://www.abirdshome.com/pm/grdpg2.htm#Basics and the ten additional pages about gourds for everything you could possibly want to know about growing gourds and using them as housing for Purple Martins. > We use them as disposable nestboxes and the old ones filled with old I used to just compost my small ones that were used by Wrens. I never thought of putting them out for other critters. Great idea. > Gourds seem to be very popular roosting sites for chickadees and I try to hang dozens of small gourds out front to keep a pesky male House Wren busy every summer. He spends all his time stuffing all those gourds with sticks and never gets to the back of the house where the Bluebird boxes are located. > We planted 110 hills of gourds on the back fence the last two years Amazing! Vines from three or four hills threaten to take over my whole place. I get a couple of really big gourds from each vine, three or four vines per hill, plus a bunch of smaller gourds that I miss when pruning the vines to force growth to a few big ones. As I've gotten older, I'm starting to avoid the work involved in making gourds into birdhouses. The majority of gourds that I've hung for this year are plastic. But there's something about a natural gourd... Take care, R J 'Tree' Greenwood From: Nancy/Fred Leetch [mailto:leetch"at"wcnet.org] Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 3:09 PM Subject: Gourd access caps The Purple Martin Conservation Association ( http://purplemartin.org/shop/product_info.php?cPath=35 Fred in Bowling Green, OH |
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