Killer Sparrow at Tulsa Colony

[Dick Sherry]

Yesterday we got a grim reminder of what an aggressive house sparrow can do to a martin. I was helping a good friend who has a large colony do his weekly nest check. The last gourd we checked was one that he had moved to a more open space just a few days ago. It had immediately been claimed by a SY pair. When he opened the gourd, he found a dead martin that had been severely pecked on the head. All the feathers were gone from the middle of its head to the back of its skull, and the skull was crimson, either from internal bleeding or bleeding at the surface. It made us extremely angry and disgusted that this bird had survived two long migrations to come back here to nest, only to be killed by one of these blasted non-native birds.

The gourd had an excluder opening, so it could not have been a starling. The weather much of the last week has been rainy with cooler than normal temperatures, and the martins have been sluggish, and spending a lot of time in their compartments. Chances are that a male sparrow surprised the martin in the gourd, blocked the opening and proceeded to beat the heck out of its head.

This is a colony where sparrows and starlings are actively shot and trapped, but the sparrow numbers are very high this year, and the landlord gets rid of one batch only to have more show up.

I know this type of account disturbs some people, but it is a reality and if we are going to host martins and other native cavity nesters in our yards, we have got to constantly work to eliminate these nest site competitors.
It is a shame that these birds were ever introduced into this country, but they are here and must be dealt with effectively.

[~Patrick~]

Dick,

Just reading your post fuels the fire that makes me determined to destroy any sparrow I possibly can. You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned how sad it was that the martin had safely made 2 perilous migrations only to be killed by an unwelcome, non-native species. Next to hosting martins, sparrow control is my passion.

Helping martins, one sparrow at a time,

Patrick

[RC Moser]

Sorry to hear about your freinds lost, IMO it's just about impossible to get them all in our area due to there numbers. I too experience the wave. IMO it only takes a few hours for the killers to strike. I have noticed PM's are not aggressive enough untill it too late for some. I have picked off two starlings this week off my setup even though they haven't pentatrated my SREHs. I don't give them a chance it I see them. The PMs just let him go from hole to hole sticking his head in Till he got to the right angle for me to shoot. So far I've been able to get the sparrows on the first shot. Got my 11th one yeterday. I got about 85 eggs so far with about 8 more pairs making nests so my danger days are just beginning.

[kimball911]

RC- What kind of gun are you using? I've got a repeating trap, but I have a sparrow pair and I pulled nest today (no eggs) and boarded up the hole, so he decided to start checking out other holes, which have Martin nests(no eggs). I have a BB gun, but my aim is quite poor.

[Dick Sherry]

Patrick and RC, thank you for your replies. There was some revenge obtained yesterday. My friend was working in his yard when he heard a sparrow squeeling on the porch of one of his houses. Turns out a female martin inside the compartment had a firm grip on one of the sparrow's wings. My friend was able to put his very tall stepladder in position so he could climb up and grab the sparrow before it got away. There is one less male house sparrow sneaking around his colony now. There needs to be a lot more martins that will be as aggressive with the sparrows.

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

An idea for effective sparrow traps is to put a wooden house up high with a 1-1/2 inch hole so the martins cannot get into it. Some people have trouble getting a repeating trap to reset for sparrows. My neighbor built a repeating trap, put it up high. about 18ft, but he has a thin monofilament line on it, he pulls the line to reset it. It easily closes when a sparrow goes into it, and stays closed. He removes the sparrow from the cage, pulls the monofilament line, and then he doesn't need to climb a stepladder to reset it. The hole is on the back side, so the sparrows think they are not being seen when they go in. Since it is so easy to reset, he has caught up to 3 per day in it.

[stan davison]

I have been out of town for a couple days to come home to 2 pair of sparrows that moved in within 2 days. They have claimed two of my gourds and i am not going to clean the nests out because i have the one pair of martins now i don't want to aggravate them and have them run off the pair of martins. I will set traps on the ground and in the Trio house. Any other advice besides a gun. And just curious when will my male martin quit running off the subbies. I really would like two pair or more but i am not complaining.

[RC Moser]

kimball911, I have a collection that all shoot pretty good. I have three extremely on target. My newest one is the AS392T, It's a BS air source bottle gun, it has two power settings and repeats good. I have a Bushnell sportman 6 by 12 40MM scope on it. My next favorite air rifle is a crosman 2100, with a BSA 44MM scope on it. That cheap gun (same as Wally world Remington pump up in .177 cal.) will hit bullseye at 65 feet.
and the one I have out in the shed is a Daisy 822 pump-up with a Bushnell 32MM scope on it. Rarely miss with that gun also.

My advise is get you a good scope big enough to see clearly through. An example Sportman Guide at sportsmansguide.com has 50MM adjustable Objective scopes for 49 bucks and a BSA 40MM air rifle scope with adjustable objectives for 39 Bucks. These are hard to beat and they have the capability to dial in the yardage for a picture clean image even with old tired eyes. The AS392 runs about 125 bucks, rest runs from 19 bucks to about $70 depending on where you get them or catch them on sale. The bushnell scopes run from about 70 to 140 bucks depending on where you buy them and the model.

I really like the BS AS392T it feels good, easy to shoot and load, two power settings and no pumping up the gun. What even you get site them in at about 12 yards. Then place a target by where you will be shooting and site them in again. It should be spot on. I also shoot at several yardages to get an Idea on the drop. Usually when you shoot close you have to shoot low on the target due to the pellet is rising and far away you have to shoot above the target due to the pellet dropping. This is the general idea of a pellet projector through different yardages. I'd post a picture but can't get the camera to work at the monent. Rc.

[RC Moser]

Got the camera to download. I'll try to post a picture

[Guest]

Those are great looking scopes....brand? Power?

Thanks in advance,

Sue
City by the Sea, TX