Thank you Cher & Gin. Truly appreciate your replies. I did put the sparrow spooker back up & am untying a new row of streamers each day. Tomorrow, I’ll let down the front row again, which will be the last. I am seeing the male around again, but tomorrow will be the true test. Surely, he knows by now that it won’t harm him. Late last spring, I got a new next door neighbor & she was feeding the seed with fillers that you get at the grocery store. Within a month, there were up to 100 HOSP’s in her yard & of course, crossing over into my yard & others. They took over my mealworm feeders & it just became a huge mess. Luckily, I spoke to her & she didn’t realize the negative impact she was causing, so we both agreed to stop feeding for several months. When she started feeding again, she agreed that she would go to Wild Birds Unlimited & select other things to feed. She is now feeding mealworms. For the most part, the HOSPs relocated, but with them now familiar with our location, I still see some around, but we are no longer infested with them. Our yards are very close together, so if the situation wouldn’t have been corrected, I wasn’t even going to put my 2 boxes up this year for fear of terrible problems. Again, so glad she worked with the bluebirds & the other little songbirds we so long to attract. Just didn’t want to go without the sparrow spooker if at all possible, so the male is just going to have to “man up.” I saw a little titmice on my porch today gathering nesting material, but don’t know where she was going with it. So cute. Thanks again!
Gin, I lived in Atlanta for 10 years (Buckhead area). You are so lucky to not have HOSPs. I don’t have house wrens, so that’s good.
Nicole