Several years ago, Duke Snyder, a Purple Martin Landlord
in Butler, PA, invented a revolutionary new starling-proof entrance hole called
the Excluder (photo left). Prior to the development of this entrance hole, there were only
starling-resistant holes, like the crescent or "ob-round" entrance holes.
I immediately began using the Excluder at one of the PMPA’s colony sites at Saxon Golf Course in Sarver, PA in 2002 & 2003: House#1 House#2. Meanwhile, Willy Conley came up with a variation on the Excluder that some landlords said their martins preferred, claiming it was easier for martins to enter while still excluding starlings. This entrance hole was dubbed the WDC or Conley Excluder (photo right). In 2004, I decided to test for the martins' preference for the different Excluders, then to compare the breeding success in the two different types of entrance holes.
The site consists of two wooden T-14's, placed about 20 feet apart. Conley Excluder entrance holes on every other compartment on both houses, so that there were a total of 14 entrance holes with Conley Excluders and 14 entrance holes with Snyder Excluders, equally distributed at all heights and facing all directions. The Conley Excluder entrance holes were 1/4" above the porch; whereas the Snyder Excluders were 1/2" above the porch. It is important to note that this difference is not a test variable, but rather a feature of the respective entrance holes. There was a piece of grit tape in front of each of all 28 entrance holes.
