Once again, why we MUST terminate ALL HOSP! (Non PM victims)

[MamaBruff]

I have heard of HOSP rampage. But this was uncalled for. I have plenty of places that HOSP can go, including some empty BB houses. So why does a solitary male HOSP viciously attack a beautiful little clutch of Carolina Chickadees? (Maybe my neighbor has been tearing his nests out, and he comes to MY place to take revenge?)

There were 6 healthy chicks in the nest on Sunday, all in pinfeathers. I have seen no battles take place, as HOSP have been taking advantage of empty housing (trendsetter,gourds, traps, and empty BB houses) I thought the Chickadees were under the radar.

Today the chicks should have been 8-10 days old. I work part time, and wouldn't you know disaster strikes while I am gone! I came home at 1PM to a HOSP sitting on top of the Chickadee house and my heart immediately sank... There on the ground was the dead mother, pecked to death, plucked bald headed. 3 dead chicks also on the ground, killed in the same manner as their mama.

But! There was ONE live one in the grass! I scooped it up, inspected it, and put it back in the nest. Oh my! Then I thought of KathyF's trap idea and ran with it. I made a HOSP excluder (1 1/8") out of the ever useful good-old Folger's coffee container, and taped it over the entrance. Baby safe. Unhappy HOSP dominates house and Dad is unable to get to his baby.

I hunted that unrelenting murderer for the rest of the afternoon. I was afraid he would move over to the BB house if I didn't terminate him right away! I'm sure the the neighbors think I'm crazy, out skulking around in the back pasture packing a shotgun and binoculars! .... When the HOSP was gone hiding from me, Mr. Chickadee was able to get to his baby and feed it green worms and bugs. I just hope he stays on task, and sleeps in the house to keep little one warm, and is eventually successful. We have some bad weather coming just in time to make things more of a challenge.

In all, Baby and Dad are safe with their altered house, and the Murderer has expired. I just wish I had thought of that excluder when they started laying their eggs. Never Again.

I thought, "What a responsibility to take part in housing native birds!" Not for the faint of heart! My husband came home this evening and told me to not be so upset; "It's Nature at it's Cruelest"... BUT I see it diffferently. I am to blame for putting up the house and not adding an excluder. Shame on me.

You brave PM Landlords who deal with this year after year have my deepest respect indeed!

Mary

[rrmartins]

Very sorry for your loss.

Our neighborhood cat loves all the ones I toss over the fence. Every now and then I give them a extra Starling. I tried trapping but guess they're scared of our Doberman and Pit bull. You have to take them out.

[RC Moser]

i learnt that lesson several years ago.. I immediately put wooden adapter made out of 2x3 or 2x4 over the bb hole 1 1/4" diameter to protect the Chickadees and Tuffed Titmouses when they take BB box to nest in...really need extention to protect the nester from the sparrow reaching in IMO. The block of wood extends the entry.

I never pass up shot at Male English sparrow. Knowing what natural born killers they are. I once seen starling taking out ES nest. needless to say I watch the starling torment the ES's do his dirty work then I shot the starling.

[DakotaLady]

Mary,

Sadly, I learned the hard way too seeing a sparrow start throwing out some of my bluebird babies a few years back. It is all out war here now with sparrows. I have traps, guns and do everything in my power to get rid of them. It still bothers me when I think about it, but I believe it is really necessary to eliminate these birds before they take away the beautiful native birds.

I'm glad you were able to get rid of the tyrant. Keep up the vigilant patrol and eliminate them as quickly as possible. I am so sorry you lost your chickadee mother and babies. The one little tyke still in the nest is adorable.

Good luck!

[MamaBruff]

Thanks so much; Nobody understands like you folks! I have a zero tolerance for S&S, so this came as a shock after a peaceful weekend w/ no S&S; I was totally blindsided. (and once again humbled) I have NO problem at all with eliminating the vermin (I also put them over the back fence for the scavengers)... What I don't understand is WHY this rogue ninja assassin SOB would attack out of the blue when he can go to any empty spots? (which turn into traps of course!) I can only imagine the horror if this should happen to a PM! I only hope that I am as strong and wise as you guys when my founder PMs finally arrive! *SIGH* I'm gonna go and think about bubbles and sparkles and soft puffy clouds now.
Thanks,
Mary

[Davlyn]

I also learned the hard way ! I found a metal plate size 1 1/8 from a local nursery now the HOSP can not get in . Best wishes this season .

[Connie]

Oh Mary,

That is so awful and I am so sorry you had to deal with that sort of trauma.
The little chickadee and titmouse are my favorites of the small song birds.
That was surely just meanness the sake of meanness, pure evil. I hope your little one makes it and a new family comes to make a home next year. You are a great landlord and you will be repaid when your many martins move into your place and you grow a huge colony. Good luck to you.

[DebA]

Mama Mary,
Those poor birdies. I am sorry. I can feel your pain when you said it happened when you weren't there. Keep us posted on how the one is doing or how dad is doing with it.

Good job hunting down that house sparrow. Who cares what the neighbors think? Probably won't cross you anyhows.

Deb

[Matt@atx]

Hi Mama Mary,


I sorry to hear about such a loss like this. Finding a brutal killing of your birds is a shock and fills one with guilt any time it happens.
Sparrows are so dangerous and strike at the most uncommon hour. This is not your fault and all we can do is learn and share to help others like you are already doing. Remember that you did not kill them, a sparrow did.

Im glad to hear you have a survivor and I hope the male raises him.
It would be interesting to know if dad continues to care for his lone baby. Please keep us updated.

[MamaBruff]

Thank you all for your helpful advice, kind words and understanding sympathy. The remaining chickadee chick did not survive, likely due to cold.
I'm going to mount a "real" chickadee house on a slick pole further back from the open field. There's still time for a second chance....

BTW, When it quit raining this afternoon, I went right out and mounted a sparrow spooker over the BB house. The parents were pretty ticked off, but got over it quickly. Mama BB was in her house before I made it back into mine. Dad BB was too skittish to go in, so she begged the worm from him, and she took it in! Brave Girl! It is blowing a gale here, and probably not the best time to mount a Spooker, but might save them from a HOSP attack when I am not looking. They are all I have left in housing, so I'm keeping an extra close eye on them. Next add will be snake netting. The house is on a tree trunk (I know, bad place) and I plan to move it to a safer location and add a predator guard as soon as babies fledge. All the poor animals are having a rough go this spring.

[DebA]

One thing I do now that I never did prior to the past couple of years...when I go anywhere, literally anywhere and see a HOSP or Starling I growl at it. Not like a werewolf but just this to myself clinched teeth grrr. I bet I am not the only one that exhibits this behavior.
Deb

[phillip26r]

It's not natural at all. Those rat birds aren't supposed to be here.

[KathyF]

Mary, so sorry to see what happened to your chickadee family - poor little guys.

Glad to see you got the little stink. Thanks for sharing your story - it can't be repeated often enough, and the pictures shared on these forums, to show that HOSP are a threat to all our native, cavity-nesters - not just martins.

[MamaBruff]

Kathy,

I am thankful that you had posted about excluding BBs from your HOSP traps a few days earlier. If I had just thought (then) to build on your idea and fabricate a HOSP excluder, my Chickadees would all be snug and fat tonight.... I was so distraught and frantic to protect the remaining babe, when it hit me.... "Darn, I don't have a sour cream lid like Kathy used...Oh yeah, I have an empty plastic coffee can, it will do..." Took the hole saw and stuff along with the shotgun out onto the patio to keep watch while I fabricated and cried, and saw a beautiful PM lady soar overhead.

I do take comfort in knowing that others have had situations similar to mine. (1 1/8" metal plate and 2" predator guard on my list) But I know that if I had not had a house up, the CHK would not have nested there. It was therefore my responsibility to provide safe housing. I am resolved to think and act as though everything was after them (and it usually is). When I have done all that I can do, it is then that I can say "It's nature"...

May there be warm sunshine on your colony tomorrow!

[DebA]

This also got me thinking about the housing I have up. See Mary, your tragedy will avert others'. I have a BB house. It never gets BB's. I think it is in a good location. But it does host wrens. I measured it's hole yesterday. It is 1 1/2. I think I am going to reduce it to 1 1/8. Is that too small for a bluebird? Not that they come here anyway. They are in our area but I don't know prevalent. Last year I saw a male land on a fence post when I was using binocs to HOSP hunt. The only time I have seen one.

If I reduce the hole it has a better chance of saving other little species that choose to nest there.

Deb

[MamaBruff]

Deb,

1 1/2" is too small for Starlings, but anything a BB can enter, so can a HOSP.
Kathy had posted that 1 5/16" will exclude BBs if you want to trap HOSP in the house. House Wren and Carolina Chickadee can use 1 1/8". I have had a female HOSP get into a 1 1/4" opening, so definitely no bigger than that! Hope this helps.

Now get out there and feed your Martins!


Have a great day, and good luck with "hatching" your new human grandbaby!

Mary

PS I saw TORNADOES forecasted for Thursday on the weather channel. Oh great!

[DebA]

I did! Hungry!! It's pretty telling when I make a batch of blueberry muffins for the fam...but hesitate because of how many eggs it might use. Those eggs in the fridge are no longer for us! 2 eggs for muffins...family lucked out.


Thanks for the measurements. I am going to go 1 1/8 and help the house wrens. No one is using that house yet this year.
Deb

[jmeyer]

Last year I saw a male sparrow harassing a nest of King Birds. The next day the nest was on the ground and the babies were all dead. So it is not just a problem for the cavity nesters.

[MamaBruff]

OMG! I have a pair nesting in one of the oaks in my back pasture, and just watched them send a RT hawk out in a hurry.

It just makes me sick; HOSP are not only annoying, they are dangerous to ALL birds.... so what will the birding landscape look like in 100 more years? All S&S ? I get cold chills just thinking about it.

So I wonder why there isn't a nationwide effort to eradicate these hateful
(badword badword badword) pests! We seem to have causes for everything else! I am trying to do my part; S&S total this past 2 months is 23&27, adding more daily.

I have an idea; CANADA can start it! They are already so progressive, and if it works for them, them maybe the US will get on the bandwagon too. Heck we all have guns, so lets use them!

Grrrowl and Snarrrl!

Mary

[DornCounty]

the whole problem with the S&S issue is that some biologists and conservationists don't believe they are an issue.