Like most on here I trap sparrows using nest box, repeating and walk in traps. Unlike most I release mine back to nature ( through the rear end of a falcon ). The flock of sparrows at my feeders this year is unreal. Iv trapped little over a 100 out of about 350+. Now the rest just will not have anything to do with the traps. And it seams that every time I kill one 10 more show up for the funeral.
Anyway I came up with a brainstorm idea the other day. I watch the sparrows at my feeders and every time I step out the door they take off, some go up and over the house and the rest will go around the side of the house to the same spot every time. It.s a big pine tree that has a thick row of American Bittersweet right next to it.
Made a call to my loco DNR and got permission to put up and use a mist-net. The kind that Bird banders use to capture, band and release . The net is 8foot x 30foot has 3 pouch design has 4 pole loops at each end. This is my x-mas gift to my self and if it works it going to be a very, very merry x-mas.
PM Fanatic and proud Landlord. My goal is 100 pairs and 100 landlords.
Wendell, what a great idea! From having my birds banded last week, I can tell you one piece of advice - if the wind is blowing, it makes the mist net more visible and it is unlikely to work on windy days. Just my observations.
When I read the second sentence in your post, about "releasing them back to nature", I'm glad I kept reading, because I was going to fire up my PM/Email feature and ask you what were you thinking - this was NOT the Wendell I know!! LOL
"Sometimes", said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."
2023 - 82 pair
2022 - 80 pair
2021 - 75 pair
2020 - 78 pair
2019 - 80 pair http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com
Hey Wendell good to see you back posting some on the forum. I too was shocked at first about your releasing sparrows until I read on. How was your year? Did you get 100 nesting pairs yet? I drove by your site many times last summer and saw lots of activity. With all the coming and going it looked like most of your gourds or nests were occupied. I doubled my nesting pairs in Arnolds Park from three to six by adding four gourds underneath the house. I have other changes there for next summer adding tunnels to the S&K 14 room house. Down at my vacant lot on Lower Gar lake I added six gourds and incresaed my nesting pairs there from four nests to nine...
Kathy thank you for the advice. I don't have a lot of room out by the pine tree and the bittersweet and thats the last thing I need is for the net to get tangled in the tree. The way the sparrows fly up and over and around the house they will not have hardly any time what so ever to avoid the net. If you have any more hints on how to use the net place let me know.
All right Tony, good to hear that your numbers are up at both sites. Im sorry to say that my numbers were down this year. I knew they would be due to a racoon attack in 2010. Eight years no problems and in two nights I all most lost my colony. I learned the hard way, it's not if, it's WHEN! It may take years but in the end it will happen. Get them baffles on!!!!!!!
Had 69 pairs. 328 eggs and 292 that fledge.
Came up with a new idea the other day. Read a post about a guy up in northron MN. He had put out a winter roost box for black-capped chickadee, but he had made the hole to big and the house sparrows had taken it over. Going to make one, and after dark will go out and plug the hole. Hope it works I have got to come up with new ways of trapping the @#%&*$ things
PM Fanatic and proud Landlord. My goal is 100 pairs and 100 landlords.
Wendell - good luck - I have a variety of traps - the Blaine repeating trap, the PMCA repeating trap (modified to prevent the HOSP from getting back under the tripping cage), a Trio trap door that I've attached to a small wooden nestbox and a T-post so that I can move it around, and last - but not least I have 3 Van Ert traps.
The Van Erts are handy, but it's a pain when you're trying to open the door to the nest box and keep the sparrow from escaping under your arm or around your hand. I chased a HOSP around for 2 days last summer and when I *finally* caught him with the VanErt, I lost my focus for 1 second and he got away from me. I sat there for 15 minutes berating myself for not being more careful.
I watched my banders trap the birds and I did notice that they push the nets up higher on telescoping poles - the top edge was up around 9 to 10' high. You might consider putting the poles up and stretching the net between them, but leave the net squished down for a few days until they get comfortable with it. Then surprise'em! Please keep us posted as to how this works!
"Sometimes", said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."
2023 - 82 pair
2022 - 80 pair
2021 - 75 pair
2020 - 78 pair
2019 - 80 pair http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com
