Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!...Must Stay Calm...Can't Get Excited Yet!

AvianStewardess · Mon Jun 03, 2013 6:24 pm

Hello, Everybody! I had no idea that I could spark her interest. I thought for sure she would remind me of the impossibility of her killing any creature. But she is and she didn't. My sister (my big sister, my only sister!) might be interested in starting a colony! Okay...must stay calm...because...

My sister's house is literally 500' from a cattle farm. Lots of grain. Lots of House Sparrows (and probably European Starlings, too, but since offering no housing to their liking they are probably just doing bug eating in the fields). She's got a big, open field; the Mississippi River is five miles away but there's a couple of duck ponds at neighbors and lots of creeks. If not for the invasive birds, I would be totally confident...

On a scale of 1 to 10, what do you think her chances are keeping the House Sparrows at bay? Anyone else out there with this scenario? How do you keep the pests away?

Any input greatly appreciated. So would like this to happen for her; I know she'd get a kick out of a successful colony. BTW She's in NW Illinois, USDA Zone 4B.

DakotaLady · Mon Jun 03, 2013 8:58 pm

I live next to a farmer and the sparrows are CRAZY here. I have to be on my toes ALL the time trapping and shooting. Before the martins and tree swallows come almost all of my houses have one form of a trap or another in them. I think it is possible and if she gets a repeating trap and sets it by her grain piles or bins I bet she would take a nice big chunk out of the sparrow population.

I say tell her to go for it.

MamaBruff · Mon Jun 03, 2013 9:19 pm

Go GO Sister!

It has been said that the 2 things that PMs need are HOUSES and Landlords who are willing to control S&S.

I would also add that in starting a new colony, that house will be up and down a lot. Don't scrimp and buy a cheapo house, get a good one, and add a few gourds underneath. She will also need some external NB trap houses.

Best of luck to her and to you! Now if she can get her houses up for the latter part of the summer, the nearby fledglings and homeless SYs should find her, and return to her next year. How exciting!

Mary

AvianStewardess · Tue Jun 04, 2013 4:56 am

Thank you, ladies! Brother-in-law will have to be in charge of extermination duties until he and I can convince she is being ridiculous! There are times I wonder how it is possible our DNA is so different!

They'll have to have a substantial set-up. Her property is at one of the highest spots in the county and those Illinois prairie winds are a constant.

HOPE to let you know in the future that sister got the addiction, too. I mean addiction runs in the genes, right? So I got a 50/50 chance, right?

scottfreidhof · Tue Jun 04, 2013 4:55 pm

Sounds like a great location for a new colony despite the sparrows. I use a 3-pronged approach to control. First, I would encourage your sister's husband to start trapping now if at all possible with a walk-in style trap placed on the ground. There are naive house sparrow fledglings all over the place right now from the first round of nesting. I have trapped 20 fledglings and one adult just part time trapping during the last 2 weekends. He can consider it prep work for attracting a colony next spring. August is another good time to trap due to the presence of large groups of foraging fledglings.

Then in late winter/early spring, the house sparrows bunch up on the ground under my bird feeder. I use a small pile of mixed bird seed to attract them into a tight group. Using a shotgun out the kitchen window, I can take out 5 or 6 with one shot from a 20-gauge (#7 steel shot).

Finally in the spring, all of my bluebird boxes get claimed by a pair of house sparrows. I use an insert trap to remove those pairs during the early nest building process. By the time the native cavity nesters get interested, all cavities are available to them.

AvianStewardess · Tue Jun 04, 2013 5:36 pm

scottfreidhof wrote:Then in late winter/early spring, the house sparrows bunch up on the ground under my bird feeder. I use a small pile of mixed bird seed to attract them into a tight group. Using a shotgun out the kitchen window, I can take out 5 or 6 with one shot from a 20-gauge (#7 steel shot).

Love, L.O.V.E., love it!!! That is awesome! Now I can tell friends/family "But that's what the pros do." I got the perfect, P.E.R.F.E.C.T., perfect set-up for this! Oh...wait...that's right... this is for my sister's place.