If you don't already know us, we are from a school in Richmond, Texas. The name of our school is Smith Elementary. There has been a lot of discussions about the control of house sparrows. Our homes are right in the middle of our school, so other than quietly trapping birds, there are no other options. Just like our students, our house sparrows are super smart. We haven't had much luck capturing the sparrows.
This is our fourth year, and we have been pulling sparrow nests every year. This system seems to be working at our school. We currently have 58 eggs with lots of nest building incomplete, 80% Purple Martin occupancy, and the amount of sparrow nests have decreased. We are pulling about 2 a week.
I thought this information might be interesting since it is working for us.
Daryle
Nest removal appears to be successful.
Interesting.
I tried weekly sparrow nest removal from five neglected houses in 2008. Over three months I pulled more than 200 completed sparrow nests and the effect on the martins in those houses was a catastrophe; lots of pecked eggs and very few young fledged. Meanwhile absolutely no dimunition in house sparrow numbers all season.
I was pulling nests once a week, perhaps twice a week works better.
Then again, I doubt that sparrows have ever become established in your housing.
I hope that this methods works with new housing elsewhere, for it would be a simple regime for a teacher and students to follow.
Mike Scully
I tried weekly sparrow nest removal from five neglected houses in 2008. Over three months I pulled more than 200 completed sparrow nests and the effect on the martins in those houses was a catastrophe; lots of pecked eggs and very few young fledged. Meanwhile absolutely no dimunition in house sparrow numbers all season.
I was pulling nests once a week, perhaps twice a week works better.
Then again, I doubt that sparrows have ever become established in your housing.
I hope that this methods works with new housing elsewhere, for it would be a simple regime for a teacher and students to follow.
Mike Scully
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Bernie Nikolai
- Posts: 402
- Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2003 7:44 pm
- Location: Edmonton, Alberta
I have had good success in discouraging sparrows with nest removal under the following circumstances:
1/ Sparrows have never been allowed to nest at the site successfully. Mike Scully has a real challenge in that the sparrows are habituated to the slum colonies he was treating by nest removal. Quite possibly for decades. So I think it would take a few years for the old sparrows to die off for nest removal to work at sites like that.
2/ You hit the jackpot if you are lucky enough to have the sparrows lay eggs in the nest. It is essential to remove the entire nest, then place the sparrow eggs on the bare floor, and break them. Leave them there. Within 24 hours all shells etc are gone, eaten by other birds. It doesn't work if you break the eggs and leave the nest in the compartment. All that happens is the sparrows build another nest level over the broken eggs, and nest again.
3/ The most effective by far is removing the nest and then use it as bait in the compartments of the double sided wire sparrow trap the PMCA sells. I just mount this trap with a bunge cord right on the pole at about the 4 ft. height, with both sides baited with parts of the sparrow nest. Within an hour the sparrows attempt to rebuild their nest with pieces of the old one, and I usually catch both the male and female in an hour or less. However, if trapping is not an option, ripping out the nest and breaking the eggs on the bare floor works as long as the sparrows have not previously successfully nested at the site (from my experiments). Keep in mind another sparrow pair may move into the same compartment, so you may have to repeat the procedure on the new sparrow pair.
1/ Sparrows have never been allowed to nest at the site successfully. Mike Scully has a real challenge in that the sparrows are habituated to the slum colonies he was treating by nest removal. Quite possibly for decades. So I think it would take a few years for the old sparrows to die off for nest removal to work at sites like that.
2/ You hit the jackpot if you are lucky enough to have the sparrows lay eggs in the nest. It is essential to remove the entire nest, then place the sparrow eggs on the bare floor, and break them. Leave them there. Within 24 hours all shells etc are gone, eaten by other birds. It doesn't work if you break the eggs and leave the nest in the compartment. All that happens is the sparrows build another nest level over the broken eggs, and nest again.
3/ The most effective by far is removing the nest and then use it as bait in the compartments of the double sided wire sparrow trap the PMCA sells. I just mount this trap with a bunge cord right on the pole at about the 4 ft. height, with both sides baited with parts of the sparrow nest. Within an hour the sparrows attempt to rebuild their nest with pieces of the old one, and I usually catch both the male and female in an hour or less. However, if trapping is not an option, ripping out the nest and breaking the eggs on the bare floor works as long as the sparrows have not previously successfully nested at the site (from my experiments). Keep in mind another sparrow pair may move into the same compartment, so you may have to repeat the procedure on the new sparrow pair.
He who harbors the nesting bird shall have health and happiness all the year
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martinteach
- Posts: 188
- Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:14 am
- Location: Richmond, TX
Thanks Bernie for your response.
I have spent so many hours at my school with all methods of catching sparrows that I finally gave up. I didn't try the cord, but I tried the sparrow traps and I have tried glue traps. After catching one, I never caught another sparrow again. Like I said, these birds are very smart. They won't even come near the houses if I am around. I also tried breaking eggs and the number of nests did not seem to decrease. I have, however, seen the martins chase the sparrows away this year and I hadn't seen that in the past.
Daryle
I have spent so many hours at my school with all methods of catching sparrows that I finally gave up. I didn't try the cord, but I tried the sparrow traps and I have tried glue traps. After catching one, I never caught another sparrow again. Like I said, these birds are very smart. They won't even come near the houses if I am around. I also tried breaking eggs and the number of nests did not seem to decrease. I have, however, seen the martins chase the sparrows away this year and I hadn't seen that in the past.
Daryle
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Show-Me-Mike
- Posts: 53
- Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 10:08 pm
- Location: MO/Carrollton
Daryle,
Bernie is correct is his observations regarding the effective use of the double-sided sparrow trap from the PMCA . I've used the exact same method in ridding pesky HOSP using their own nest as bait. It works as Bernie suggested in the vast majority of time. For some hard to get rid of HOSP that simply won't be trapped, I've had to resort to a creative use of glue traps attached to the inside of the compartment entry. KathyF also had a good observation utilizing a repeating sparrow trap with female sparrows as "live bait". Read her remarks:
http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewt ... highlight=
Sounds like you're doing a great job using your method! Keep up the good work! Best wishes to all for a successful martin season!
Bernie is correct is his observations regarding the effective use of the double-sided sparrow trap from the PMCA . I've used the exact same method in ridding pesky HOSP using their own nest as bait. It works as Bernie suggested in the vast majority of time. For some hard to get rid of HOSP that simply won't be trapped, I've had to resort to a creative use of glue traps attached to the inside of the compartment entry. KathyF also had a good observation utilizing a repeating sparrow trap with female sparrows as "live bait". Read her remarks:
http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewt ... highlight=
Sounds like you're doing a great job using your method! Keep up the good work! Best wishes to all for a successful martin season!
Michael DeLany
"I'm from Missouri, you got to show me the martins!"
"I'm from Missouri, you got to show me the martins!"
Daryle,
It is hard to imagine that an empty cavity with a spar-o-door with or other trap entrance left "running" on an empty cavity all season would not catch a number of sparrows over time. You just put it up and be patient.
The trick being to have a trap set up with a 1 1/2" entrance; big enough for a sparrow, too small for a martin to get in.
Since we have 40 gourds on our campus, we use this one, "Ol Sparky", been catching sparrows for us for years.
I am very interested in your experience with sparrow control as we will be setting up at least ten new martin sites this fall.
You apparently have houses rather than gourds.
Why did you choose houses? What sort of house/lowering system do you use? and have you had problems with vandals?
All info would be appreciated.
Mike Scully
It is hard to imagine that an empty cavity with a spar-o-door with or other trap entrance left "running" on an empty cavity all season would not catch a number of sparrows over time. You just put it up and be patient.
The trick being to have a trap set up with a 1 1/2" entrance; big enough for a sparrow, too small for a martin to get in.
Since we have 40 gourds on our campus, we use this one, "Ol Sparky", been catching sparrows for us for years.
I am very interested in your experience with sparrow control as we will be setting up at least ten new martin sites this fall.
You apparently have houses rather than gourds.
Why did you choose houses? What sort of house/lowering system do you use? and have you had problems with vandals?
All info would be appreciated.
Mike Scully
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martinteach
- Posts: 188
- Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:14 am
- Location: Richmond, TX
Mr. Scully,
We have 3 poles in the middle of our school. No one can get in when we are not there. The first pole has a wooden house made of pine, plywood, and I think some aspen. It is an original design and has 8 rooms. The second pole is a T-14 with 14 rooms. The third pole has 8 gourds donated by purple martin landlords. The gourds are original designs. The wood houses have excluder entrances. I have not changed the gourd entrances yet. Both wooden houses use a pulley system. The T-14 has a brake.
As far as the sparrows go, I only had to pull one nest this week with no eggs. I currently have 111 babies and eggs. I think one of the eggs is a dud because nothing has happened and the birds are quite big now. This year, the clutches of eggs are bigger. One nest has 7 and 2 nests have 6.
I have used the T-14 to capture one sparrow and was never able to catch another one again. I kept moving it and disguising it but had no luck. That was two years ago. Last year, I used the glue traps and almost caught one. It was hanging for a few minutes by its feathers. I usually waited inside the school but nothing ever happened. Even though I put sparrow size holes on the traps, it just made me nervous that I might hurt a martin. I am happy with my current system for now.
One other bonus at my school is that we have custodians there that are in the courtyard until the birds are safely tucked in bed. They have told me some very funny stories about chasing other predators away so we don't have too many hawk or owl problems for the moment.
I have very few empty rooms. I think that there are about 4 with no nest.
You are probably right about becoming established. I feel like we are a team (teacher and martins). I find them chasing off sparrows with no problem.
Daryle
We have 3 poles in the middle of our school. No one can get in when we are not there. The first pole has a wooden house made of pine, plywood, and I think some aspen. It is an original design and has 8 rooms. The second pole is a T-14 with 14 rooms. The third pole has 8 gourds donated by purple martin landlords. The gourds are original designs. The wood houses have excluder entrances. I have not changed the gourd entrances yet. Both wooden houses use a pulley system. The T-14 has a brake.
As far as the sparrows go, I only had to pull one nest this week with no eggs. I currently have 111 babies and eggs. I think one of the eggs is a dud because nothing has happened and the birds are quite big now. This year, the clutches of eggs are bigger. One nest has 7 and 2 nests have 6.
I have used the T-14 to capture one sparrow and was never able to catch another one again. I kept moving it and disguising it but had no luck. That was two years ago. Last year, I used the glue traps and almost caught one. It was hanging for a few minutes by its feathers. I usually waited inside the school but nothing ever happened. Even though I put sparrow size holes on the traps, it just made me nervous that I might hurt a martin. I am happy with my current system for now.
One other bonus at my school is that we have custodians there that are in the courtyard until the birds are safely tucked in bed. They have told me some very funny stories about chasing other predators away so we don't have too many hawk or owl problems for the moment.
I have very few empty rooms. I think that there are about 4 with no nest.
You are probably right about becoming established. I feel like we are a team (teacher and martins). I find them chasing off sparrows with no problem.
Daryle
