mstupka wrote: I feel worse now after reading the responses, particularly the first one.
Don't feel bad about not wanting to kill sparrows. That's a normal human response, if you have any heart at all. The ability to "toughen up" comes with time, and if you see enough destroyed native birds/ eggs, and read enough stories from people with first-hand experience (for instance on this forum), you will become able to tolerate it with an objective viewpoint. As far as I know, starlings are the most numerous bird on the continent, and I figure sparrows are not far behind. Their natural agression is the reason for that. I understand the mindset of those who feel we should not mettle in God's business and be killing his creatures, but God didn't put starlings and house sparrows here.
About getting the Sparrow to exit the trap compartment, sometimes I need to open the door to the compartment which backs up to the trap compartment and poke a stick through the ventilation holes of the trap compartment. The Sparrow jumps out pretty quickly.
I have been a landlord for several years and I still find it difficult to kill Sparrows and Starlings. I do it because it needs to be done but I don't enjoy it at all. I do however, enjoy a thriving PM colony.
In the past week I have seen a definite increase in HOSP activity. Last year at just about this time, I lost my only eggs to HOSP attack after a lull in activity. I believe that the HOSP in my area must have just fledged as the 2 of the 3 male HOSP that I have trapped in the past week seem to possibly be juveniles. The one female looks like all the rest of them so I can't tell about her. I am just very happy that my DSRT is working hard (had to free a cowbird the other day though). I am also happy to have the Spare-O-Trap door on the house (only one guest so far). The more traps the merrier.
It looks as though this may be my first year to have PM babies as I have 4 eggs in one nest (they added the green leaves yesterday) and 3 more nests being built. I do have a question: Will a pair of PMs build nests in 2 adjacent cavities (Trio Mini-Castle) and then only use one of the cavities for their eggs?
It is difficult for me to figure out which Martins build nests or how many. I, too, have a Trio mini-castle that is on it's last legs. This has been a very interesting year of "firsts" as Martin landlords. This is our third season, and our most productive in terms of occupancy, and number of babies. This is also the first year we've had sparrow problems, and as I've mentioned before, this is the first time I've even seen a sparrow in Southwest Florida since we moved here 6 years ago. This year there has been nothing but trouble from these nasty birds. I felt very bad when I had to do away with this first one that we trapped. Just when I thought we'd seen the last of the sparrows, we nailed another with the trap, and I had no probelm whatsoever doing away with it. That Spare O Door will remain there until the season is over.
This year we're also having daily "gatherings" of large numbers of Martins, who are not part of our colony. To our knowledge, we aren't aware of another landlord in our subdivision, so we are wondering where these extra Martins are coming from, and why they appear every day in the late afternoon. We are enjoying them tremedously, particularly when they go after the crows that are around. Our colony is very small with 7 couples. We have only two apartments that are not being used --the one with the trap, and another one with only a few twigs in it and currently 6 eggs. I say currently because there were as many as 9 eggs in there at one point, and don't know if the Martins put their "duds" there, or what the story is. Recently, there are 3 less, but we only found one of the eggs on the ground, cracked, but it didn't look like a sparrow had punched a hole in it. Has anyone ever seen this? Also, does anyone know if other Martins would use an already built and used Martin nest for it's own? We're wondering if we are seeing late arrivals to our area?
Congrats on getting the sparrows! I've found an easy way to get rid of them. When there are 5 or 6 in the trap (repeating), I take out all but 2. And leave food and water for them. I take an old dark blue pillowcase and a glove with me. Reach in and grab one at a time, stuffing them to the bottom of the bag and holding it so they can't get to the top and fly out. Then I go to a concrete area and do what I read to do somewhere. Make sure they're at the bottom of the bag, then swing the bag in a circle a few times, then quickly swing it the opposite way and smack the bag into the concrete pretty hard. The darkness of the blue pillowcase keeps them pretty quiet. The swinging stuns them for a second, and the smack kills them instantly. Then, bury them and do it all again when there are more in the trap.
I've released a few cardinals from the trap, and I'll tell ya... if the sparrows screamed as much as those cardinals do when they're scared... I wouldn't have martin houses!
Try banding them or pulling them out of a mist net! They will figure every angle they can to continuously keep a (PAINFUL!!) bite on you! I still love them!
