My daily walk thru the neighborhood almost always turns up Bluebirds, 
sometimes between 6 and 8 birds.  I have had nesting boxes up for several 
years, but I have just been throwing out House Sparrow nests, among a few 
successful nestings of a Tree Swallow, a House Wren and a few Chickadees. 
This spring I have found the first signs of Bluebirds building nests in 3 
boxes, one with an almost complete nest.

On Saturday, I checked the boxes and one had a few pieces of fine dried 
grass.  On Sunday, I happened to be walking by this box and decided to peek 
in again.  (I usually check only about once a week.)  It had a dead 
Bluebird, obviously severly pecked on the head.  Not very nice.  Any 
suggestions on how to get rid of way too many House Sparrow?

Jim Wilson
Queenstown
ps:  a trip to Bombay Hook and Port Mahon today (Monday) yielded a nice 
selection of ducks, but very few new migrants.  Of note was one, and only 
one, Snow Goose and this one had an obvious wing problem.  It was not going 
to be flying anywhere. Port Mahon could certainly use some Phragmite 
wacking.