And the Battle Begins

[Okie]

Set up the traps yesterday after watching a male sparrow hanging around the Trio. So far this year ie in 2 days; 2 male sparrows, 1 female sparrow, 1 starling. Hardly saw any this winter but the martin housing is definitely a lure during breeding season. Sure wish I had help in this area as I am single handedly keeping them under control, sort of. Grand total since 2016; 150 sparrows, 20 starlings. Thank goodness starlings are not as much of a problem as sparrows but oh how dangerous are they both. Starlings physically attacked my beloved ASY male,,,, twice and one lone male sparrow destroyed my second pairs eggs and ran them off just before getting caught in a NBT. I have NO sympathy for them. Must protect these martins, if I hopefully attract any this year.
It's amazing how they proliferate. Every business I see has dozens of sparrows hanging around. Even the grocery stores have sparrows flying around inside the building. We must keep them under control. Eh???

[Dave Reynolds]

Okie —- Your right... I have seen so many at the Lowe’s outdoor garden center.... and in Home Depot too..

Dave

[Dan G]

I feel your pain okie. I have taken out roughly 200 combined sparrows and starlings[more starlings] since January 2017. Yet when I drive a few miles away, they are everywhere. I wish others nearby knew how invasive these rats are and would help reduce the numbers.

[flyin-lowe]

I learned first hand during my first 5 years trying to start a martin colony that you can impact the HOSP population. They have a home range of less then two miles. At my old house I lived in the country between two farms with cattle. As you can imagine with barns and feed etc they were everywhere. When I put up my first house ever I went in to get my camera and came out and there was already a HOSP investigating it. That year I killed over 100 of them. The first year or two I killed over 100 then the numbers dropped each year until finally I was only getting 5-10 a year. The summer we sold that house I left the housing up all year. I was only able to go buy and check on them a couple times that summer but by the end of the year I was seeing more of them. If you take one season off their numbers will start to grow again.
I don't know much about starlings as I use SREH because we have 10X more starlings then HOSP. With the SREH I haven't even tried to fight them because I don't think I could make a dent in those....

[Bird Brain]

Home Depot and Lowe's garden center is HOSP central headquarters around here. I wonder if an online campaign or twitter campaign would help to convince businesses to eliminate HOSP? Then again. If businesses did start to eliminate HOSP, imagine the push back from uneducated bird lovers who simply don't understand. The bleeding heart "all God's creatures" crowd would probably boycott businesses that killed HOSP. So, businesses would have to kill HOSP covertly to avoid upsetting the uneducated.

[Okie]

Bird Brain I agree. It is so sad to see how many hang out inside the stores. Makes me want to cry.

Flyin-lowe that is good info. Guess we never give up huh?

Dan G Yeah I wonder if it really would make a dent in the population if more people were on duty. I've read they raise 3 to 4 clutches a season so they just might increase that to 5 or 6... ugh Parish that thought.

I started a new topic with my experience today. Wonder if any one else had that happen. Check it out.

[zag]

I tried getting Martins for 4 years, visitors is about it... Reason I got out of the game, constant fight with HOSP.. Lowering your house once or twice a week to remove nest, gets old real fast.... I had a air rifle, and yes I was deadly, if you know what I mean, but that gets old too... Ya get tired of the sparrows, its a constant chase, that's not worth it.. Trash bird, yes they are..

[rrmartins]

I tried getting Martins for 4 years, visitors is about it... Reason I got out of the game, constant fight with HOSP.. Lowering your house once or twice a week to remove nest, gets old real fast.... I had a air rifle, and yes I was deadly, if you know what I mean, but that gets old too... Ya get tired of the sparrows, its a constant chase, that's not worth it.. Trash bird, yes they are..

Glad you got out of the game when you did, doing weekly nest checks is part of the game we play. If you don’t like raising and lowering your house, there’s no need to have interest in Martins.
I killed 67 sparrows last year, hope I kill twice that many this year. Good luck to those fighting the fight.

[detioh11]

I own a large dairy farm in central Michigan. Last Friday I had the USDA out to poison starlings. We baited them for 4 days prior to that and then they come out and put treated bait out for 1 day. They estimated that we had 2000 birds coming to our feed pile for the cows to eat the corn. 3 days later I am thinking there are only 200 left. I think we got 90% of them. It costs $1000 but I figure they were eating that much feed over the course of a month. I have been smiling for days thinking about all those dead starlings. Starlings chased off my only pair last year so I am starting all over again.

[Dave Reynolds]

Bird Brain I agree. It is so sad to see how many hang out inside the stores. Makes me want to cry.

Flyin-lowe that is good info. Guess we never give up huh?

Dan G Yeah I wonder if it really would make a dent in the population if more people were on duty. I've read they raise 3 to 4 clutches a season so they just might increase that to 5 or 6... ugh Parish that thought.

I started a new topic with my experience today. Wonder if any one else had that happen. Check it out.

It’s too bad that the stores can’t seem to do any thing with offending someone. I thought that maybe if the stores told their customers that the bird crap was killing all their plants, and putting crap all over everything else, was not healthy for their employees to breath and get all over them. Might open some eyes..

Dave

[JimmyP]

Wow! sounds like everybody had some good shoot'in last year, I popped 37 of the little evil doers last year thought that was good. Keep up the fight everybody sure the Martin's will appreciate it!!

[William Bagwell]

Dave, histoplasmosis is some serious stuff. Not sure if HOSP poop is risky but did see a mention of Starlings.

Birdbrain, one of the Homedepots near me tried metal spikes in the bottom of the letters on the front of the store. Noticed them a few years ago as they had a third of the parking lot blocked off while putting up the new sign. Noticed yesterday the spikes were gone. Wonder if they did not work or some group protested?

[taxidermy lady]

Hi Okie! Glad your giving it another go this year! You can do it! Trap and trap is all you can do! I think in time you win! I don’t see any trash birds here! When I do see them I’m looking out the shop window and I can’t be fast enough any more! Their gone! They are scared of me! I like it that way! good luck this year!

[Okie]

Hi Okie! Glad your giving it another go this year! You can do it! Trap and trap is all you can do! I think in time you win! I don’t see any trash birds here! When I do see them I’m looking out the shop window and I can’t be fast enough any more! Their gone! They are scared of me! I like it that way! good luck this year!

Hey Lady I've been wondering about you thanks for your post.
Haven't seen any PM yet but scout reports indicate the early birds are back.
Several HOSP get caught then I don't have any birds at all for 2 or 3 days. That's weird to look out & see nothing. Then a few fly in & get caught and that circle starts again. At least I have conquered ie eliminated the flock I had allowed to proliferate over the years. So now it's just whoever notices the houses & flies in for a look.
I did not keep up last year. How many did you fledge last year? Hope your "flock" increases this year. Good to hear from you.

[taxidermy lady]

So happy your at it again! I only had one pair but all fledged! Should be back in a few weeks! I have my fingers crossed! The farmer cleared a lot of trees around me! It’s made huge flyways so I just have to wait and see what happens! It’s like I have a new property! GOOD LUCK!