The Street Colonies

[Scully]

Five neglected martin houses.

In 2008 I had access to six. I pulled every sparrow nest every week, more than 200 pulled sparrow nests later the result was catastrophe for the resident martins, presumably to "sparrow rage". The egg to fledge ratio was only 15%, with new martin eggs appearing all the time as the adults kept trying. Absolutely no dimunition in the number of sparrow nests all season long.

In 2009 I did just one early season sparrow nest cleanout.

66 cavites. 14 pairs martins (egg to fledge ratio 50%). 29 sparrow nests.

In 2010 I got off to a late start. One house from last year is missing leaving only 54 cavities total. Last week I pulled 33 sparrow nests from these, eliminating 16 broods of sparrows.

This week.

54 cavities

10 martin nests.

23 sparrow nests (three with eggs).

Mike Scully

[electraglideman]

Do you trap and kill sparrows or just pull their nest?

[Scully]

I just pulled their nests.

This has been reported as effective in Canada, clearly it doesn't work down here, and repeated pulling of nests without trapping makes things even worse.

Mike Scully

[Guest]

Yes sparrow rage is a killer. But so am I when protecting my kids. I have set a ground blind out at twenty yards away from my housing so as not to poke holes in them with the #12 shot clipping along at 1200fps. The pattern at 17yrds is 12 inches and the six inch inner circle picks up around 28 pieces of shot. Marlin 25MG (Garden Gun) .22WMR Smoothbore can be had for right at $200. CCI .22wmr shotshells are around $7 for a 25rnd box. The report is minimal and you will get one shot one kill results. Strip their nests and then set in the loophole. Be patient, take the female and then the male. These are my mornings here everyday and will be for some time until I eradicate them all, one and sometimes two at a time. DEATH TO S&S!!!! No, not even an elevated heart rate, just determination. They drew first blood.

[Scully]

The real story here is the extraordinary persistence of house sparrows.

They appear to lack the instinct to abandon a site despite losses of even whole broods.

That fact might explain in a large measure why they are so rarely found nesting away from humans, and why they are so successful around humans.

Mike Scully

[teridickinson]

Thanks Scully for all the work you do researching what happens in those unmanaged colonies. I think we all have perceptions about what happens when martins have to nest alongside sparrows but the work you do gives us very valuable factual insight. Perception does not equal reality.

It is interesting that after you pulled the sparrow nests just one time, there are 10 fewer. Perhaps as you say, some were just left from last year and the simple act of removing them may have added quite a bit of space for the martins.

Maybe by doing this work you can determine the best protocol for helping the martins in these situations and maybe some of us could use that the educate the owners of these sites do to that minimal amount of sparrow control, even if they won't get serious about getting rid of the sparrows.

Those of us on this forum are so accustomed to S&S control as a way of life that we tend to forget there are a whole, whole lot of people out there with martin houses who just are not willing to do the amount of work we do to control the bad guys.

Thanks

Teri

[Guest]

The only easy/universal way that I have seen here to have any kind of S&S control is to have your housing close to yours. I have two units, my first two, that are out in the most open places and are the furtherst away from my house. These are my trouble spots. I have thought of moving them closer now that the birds are becoming established but I am concerned about our layout imprint upon the returning birds. The three other units close to our home are trouble free. In my opinion diversity is key to survival in nature and all things so I try to offer them a variety of housing types not knowing what type of housing they may have fledge from. Now once again I am making it difficult for new people so I would have to recommend, as has been many times here, to try and find local colonies and see what is being used. Another approach is to consider what housing has been sold in your area in the past and what is being sold today. I digress some.

[Guest]

Scully,

If you can't trap or shoot the HS, perhaps you can addle their eggs?

http://www.sialis.org/hosp.htm

[Scully]

Well, thanks for "getting it" folks. In truth I was leary of even mentioning those colonies here.

The purpose for doing so is of course that almost ALL of the Eastern Purple Martin population must be somehow breeding in such sites, and if we took down all of these "slum" sites tomorrow, the Eastern Purple Martin might well go extinct. .

Teri....

It may be that some of those ten nests not rebuilt may yet reappear or perhaps that even house sparrows can be discouraged sometimes.

But you understand my intent perfectly, we have looked at 100 local martin housing sites for two years in a row now (and 60 of these for three years). Those representative five houses I can do nest checks on pretty much fit the description of those 100 sites perfectly:

Typical round-hole 12 room house, full of sparrows alongside one to three pairs of martins.

I have talked to several "slumlords" now, and none appeared really interested in controlling S&S, even when I explained the damage they do. Migitating my argument was the fact that many of their houses still got martins, year after year.

I figured I can at least prevail upon them to clean out the house at the beginning of the season, freeing up cavities for martins.

Here is a photo of an eight room Trio house, far better maintained than most, I took last year.



This house was maintained by a retired elderly couple with an impecably maintained garden. The house was taken down and cleaned each year and put back up spotless "when the martins came back". They even did regular nest checks.

But they had absolutely no interest in removing the sparrows. Each year 2 or 3 pairs of sparrows alongside 2 or 3 pairs of martins.

At least as much as sparrows, part of the reason for the reduced martin productivity in such houses must be the terrifically bad design features of the classic martin house. When you see how exposed large nestlings are in these houses it becomes a wonder any survive at all. In this particular house the couple told me that one year blue jays came and carried off every nestling.

Almost everyone I have met who has martin housing up is elderly. This house is sadly typical. The old gentleman passed away last year, I do not know what I will find when I go and check this house later in the season.

Mike Scully

[Scully]

mwolf...

Thanks for the reference, I find the organizational powers of the bluebird folks to be amazing.

I'm sure addling the eggs would work, but I'm looking to see what happens in most all martin housing around here.

Mike Scully