Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 19:41:25 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Abbie Banks Subject: Re: House Sparrows MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit HOUSE SPARROWS The dread of all Bluebird managers are House Sparrows. People are usually apprehensive to comment publicly regarding the evacuation of these pests. I will tell you what has had some success on my property. The primary way to relieve an area of HSparrows is to trap them in a triple Sparrow trap. I have two traps in use right now. The trap is baited with small wads of white bread. The Sparrow gets trapped in an outer section and then goes into a midsection and can't get out. There have been times when there are two and three trapped in one trap...a bonanza. What one does with them after is a personal thing. If you wish to release them, I have been told you must take them beyond five miles or they will return. Naturally, when you take them away, you are releasing them to kill other Bluebirds. NABS and Bird stores have this trap. If the HSparrows nest and lay eggs and you remove the eggs and nest, there is great danger that the HSparrows will attack and kill the Bluebirds to take their nest. Therefore, it is better to have them stay in their own nest...BUT, I replace their eggs with little plastic ones bought at a craft shop or boil their eggs and return them to the nest. They will dutifully sit on the eggs and will not bother the Bluebirds. I recommend to all who manage Bluebird trails to read The Bluebird, by Dr. Lawrence Zeleny. This book was published in 1976 and is still appropriate today. A publication with information regarding House Sparrows is Sialia, a booklet of NABS [North American Bluebird Society.] You can purchase back issues and those you might be interested in is summer of 96, fall 96, spring 95, winter 88 because all have articles dealing with House Sparrow control. Dr. Zeleny was the founder of NABS. Abbie dovekie7@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================