Ugh! Shot my first sparrow today!

[Guest]

I don't like this one bit. My hands are shaking and my stomach is churning.

He had staked my martin box as his own. He stood there most of each day, intrepid, standing watch, always at the ready to drive away the martins when they visited. Tough little buzzard.

For days, he ignored my trap, seeming to scoff at my foolishness. So I built my blind, plotting violence in my quiet suburban neighborhood. We faced off. He, perched on the porch of my martin house. I, perched in my sniper's lair in the upstairs den. Quiet as a mouse, I locked, loaded and took him on the first shot.

Though my shot was clean, he lived, in fear and pain. He really was one tough little buzzard.

I quickly ended his life with my cylinder of CO2 gas. Now all that's left of him is the blood on the martin house. And I feel sad and sick and guilty.

I'm sorry, I had to kill you, Mr. Sparrow. I know it's not your fault that you were in my yard - you owe that to some arrogant, careless human who brought your ancestor here so many generations ago. I don't hate you. I know you're just doing what you're instincts told you. But the martins need our help. And sometimes that help comes at your expense.

Call me a wimp if you will. Or lend me encouragement, brother martin keepers. Could I ever get used to this? God help me, I feel bad.

-S

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I felt bad when I shot my first sparrow, and still do not relish the job. The second is easier, and finally you feel obligated to get rid of them to protect your martins. In fact, I get angry with them because you cannot run them off, they keep coming back

Some people hate to pick a cabbage worm off the cabbage, a tomato worm off the tomatoes, but such is life.

I hope you get over the ordeal! You did the right thing, if thats any consolation.

[Al Denton]

S- I feel much the same. There is no joy in killing sparrows and starlings, or to me anyway. I do it only because it must be done. Some folks simply don't understand how some of us feel that way which you'll soon find out, and that's ashame. Al

[Mary Dawnsong]

Hi Salvy,

Nestboxes are like gold for cavity nesting birds... the only property they ever own, albeit it briefly.

If you erect nestboxes on your property then sooner or later birds are going to die because of them. It is in your power to control whether the birds that die are native songbirds, killed by English House Sparrows and European Starlings -or- those vicious, exotic species, killed by you.

Killing a House Sparrow is not a pleasant task. But please believe me - it is far, far more painful to see Purple Martins, Tree Swallows, or Bluebirds and their nestlings or eggs that have been killed by House Sparrows.

My best, Mary

[Mary Wilson-SW Ont]

Hi Salvy. It took me ten years before I could do it myself (my husband did all the dirty work in the meantime). But I eventually had to do it, and I felt as sick as you. But the others are right - once you begin to witness the carnage S+S wreak upon your native birds, you will feel less horror at doing what is necessary to protect them. You'll never like to do it, at least most of us don't, but we recognize we have to. You WILL Feel better.

[Guest]

As distasteful as it may seem to kill sparrow or starlings to me they are no different than rats and mice. They are very destructive and can spread diseases and parasites. I've seen first hand the destruction they can cause to both martins and blue birds (two of my favorite birds).

Growing up on the farm we had to control them because of the damage they caused. As boys it was our job to take care of the problem with BB guns.

I don't know that it makes it any easier but you are helping the native birds who would be eliminated without our help. The hard part is finding the level of "help" that you can provide and still be effective.

I hope you feel better with time.

John

[Guest]

I appreciate everyone's encouragement. WM's line about comparing them to rats and mice was right on the money. I think this will help in the future.

Have a great weekend.

-S

[RC Moser]

Wellllllll: after you experience perfectly healthy 5 day old baby PMs Several and ALL OF THEM) with HOLES pecked in their heads and their necks broke, you won't have no problems KILLING Sparrows (cause you are sick and p&##@! all in one emotion) I just remember the poor little defenseless babies that got murdered.

Then, there is Mr. Starling the adult PM killer. Again when you see an Poor female PM speared to death by an head injury with her wing folded around her head YOU WON'T HAVE NO problems Killing Starlings! IF you do you! YOU don't need PM's IMO!!!!.

I stake out that hole for three days after the murder and believe me When I pulled the trigger I felt GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have made a promise to my PM buddies to shoot every sparrow all year long that I get a bead on.

Some people like squirrels until the chew up the house, attic wiring, car, boat, lawn chairs ect..., outdoor lights and about anything else they can sink there teeth in. If sparrow are rats with wings, then squirrels are rats with long Furry tails.

[Guest]

Salvy,

I never took any pleasure from killing a HOSP until this year. My first Bluebird nest with five eggs was destroyed while I was at work one day. The nest material that you see on top of the destroyed eggs is what the HOSP intended to lay its eggs in. They don't even care if they build a nest on top of an adult female Tree Swallow corpse that they have killed while she incubates her eggs. I saw that while cleaning up a neglected Bluebird trail. Bird carnage:

[CUL Lou~Mich]

-S. Personally, I've found it easier, but still no joy to kill EHS, and EUST. 25 years ago, I found a female Blue Bird, and four babies that a Male EHS had just exited. I swore I'd kill every EHS I could, and have done so. However, just because I know it has to be done, doesn't mean I have to like it. I don't enjoy killing them. I do it because it has to be done to protect our native birds. Yes, it's all right to be squeamish. Yes, it's all right to hate killing. It is also however necessary to protect birds we invite to our backyard. CUL Lou

[Guest]

Salvy: I know how you feel. I don't shoot, but this year, I did trap (and kill) 3 HOSP. I never had a problem with them before, but last year the buggers pecked 5 bluebird eggs - 3 in the second nest attempt, 2 in the third - and I swore I would never let that happen again, if I could help it.

When I catch a HOSP in my trap box, I release it into a plastic bag, then smother it via manual chest compression. Holding the bird in your hand while it dies is worse, in my opinion, than shooting it from a distance and watching it fall. I get sick every time I do it.

Killing one species to protect another doesn't seem right to most of us at first glance. Some people can never do it. Some people don't seem to be bothered by it, or get used to it after time. I hate it, and I think I always will, but I have come to see the reasons behind it and the need for it. I don't understand (and never will understand) the gloaters and celebrators, and those who chalk up bodies like they are counting coup. I have learned to by-pass threads of that type in self-defense.

I think that the fact you have chosen to kill HOSP makes you a good caretaker of the native cavity nesters and the fact that it makes you sick makes you a good person.

[orbit1]

This is a tough job, but you need to go in with a certain mind set. I just think of all the things that these birds do to song birds, and it makes the job much easier.

Stay focused on the end result!

Dave

[Guest]

I posted an article one time on house sparrow wing trimming. If it really bothers you to kill, then you might want to try this. Once you have trimmed the wings of a house sparrow, it becomes passive. However, this is only a short term solution and a waste of time some would think. Within 6 months, the wings you trimmed grow back to their original status.

[Guest]

Thanks, again, everybody.

I was expecting the little guy to haunt me all week in my dreams but so far he's been quiet. I do think other sparrows are looking at me funny these days, though, which I know is a fantasy. I crack myself up.

Anyway - this is my first thread in this forum so not sure if I should start a new topic or do this here, so your advice is welcome.

Just an update. I worked really hard adapting one of those cheaper unfit-for-purple-martins houses all spring. SREHs, closeable doors, removable wall panels, screen floors, the whole nine yards.

Unfortunatlely the sparrow I dispatched staked his claim rather quickly. In hindsight, I should have shot him three weeks earlier - but I had not yet worked up the nerve at that point. The starlings come and go - once they realize they can't get in, they leave very quickly. Those SREHs are the bomb.

Though I think my chances for getting a pair are slim to none this late in the game - the martins were here - and they did check out the place, before Mr. HOSP chased them away. So I am hopeful that they or some of their kin will return next year. Their visit led to another mod - a TV-antenna style perch up top. They had a hell of a time sitting on the roof since it's so slippery. I know if they return they will be more comfortable with the accomodations. There are a lot of PMs in my town - so I am relatively optimistic for next year.

I'll keep you posted.

-S

[Fred Kaluza~MI]

So Salvy, how did it work out?

[Guest]

Fred,

I don't think you're going to hear frm Salvy, whose last post was June 22, 2005. This thread was started in June 2005, and somehow is back. Most of the posters now have not been heard from in a while.

Tony

[Fred Kaluza~MI]

Well, Tony, my hope was that Salvy would respond and let us know whether he/she got over his/her apparent aversion. Browsing the archives it seems that was the ONLY message ever posted from salvy! I just hope that if Salvy was real, that he/she removed any housing that had been left up afterward. I tend to think that people who don't stay onboard here generally tend to drift away from Martins.

[Guest]

If it makes you feel guilty then don't do it. They are parasites and the less the better. You have done us all a big favor. Congratulations!