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Robbe, I just sent them. 2 emails with plenty o’ pics! I forwarded what I sent to Barbara. You can blow the pics up as big as you need to see. Sorry the pics here are gone. They weren’t big enough to see anyway. What I sent you is better. Hope it helps! julie
Just checked and they’re in my sent folder, so yes. It’s a forward email with attachments, so maybe in your spam or junk?? Look around & let me know!
Robbe, I just resent 3 pics about an hour ago to your gmail address. Subject was fishing line pics. Did you get those?
I’ve conducted the following experiment: I had fishing line strung by the hole, and no activity at the box for weeks. No sparrows, no natives. I went away on a trip so I took down the line to see what would happen. In 4 days, I had several sparrows invading the box and starting to build. So, it really does deter. However, it also seems to deter natives. Now that I’ve trapped a sparrow (there were 2-3 males competing), I have to decide whether to put up the line or not. Will it deter everybody?
I saw a video on fishing line that said, it’s probably better to wait till a native pair is interested, before putting it up.
What do you all think? My box is in a tough site for bluebirds: I had a successful nest last year, but I’ve also got a lot of sparrows around.
??I think it’s best to trap HOSP like crazy and then put the spooker or fishing line up just after the bluebirds lay eggs.
I was hoping to find extra protection for the pre-egg period. Like, birds discover box and start a nest=put up fishing line; birds lay egg=put up spook. Has anyone has success with fishing line installed before egg laid?
We did it for tree swallows and it worked. But the bluebirds not quite as “pushy” as the tree swallows.I’ve used fishing line successfully on boxes pre-nest making. I have it on the box roofs in an X year-round to try to keep those noisy sparrows from claiming a box. I have it dangling on one box year-round. I never have it on the swallow box, and I always have a time in March where I’m trapping sparrows like mad in that box. Sometimes the bluebirds are skittish at first with the fishing line, but this year I know I have a new female and she has accepted it.
But I do agree with phillyblues. If HOSP are a problem, take the time to trap them. Once you reduce that initial population, it does make a big difference. I also do lots of in-box trapping any time of the year–I’ve even waded out there in deep snows because some HOSP male chose a box and started singing on top of it. Hope you figure out a method that works for you!
I keep trying to post this, but it won’t go thru…just disappears. Try a plexiglass skylight in your roof. This quote is from Dean Rust: “I took over a 20 box trail at Hempfield High School in 2012 that was completely infested with Sparrows due to lack of monitoring. After reading an article in Birds and Blooms that suggested letting light into the boxes to deter sparrows, I started drilling 2 1/2″ holes in the tops of the boxes and then covering them over with plexiglass to keep the water out. Within the first year the 15 boxes that I put skylights in were sparrow free, but the remaining 5 boxes had sparrows in them. So I decided to complete the trail so all 20 boxes had skylights. After doing that, the trail was completely sparrow free. To this day (5-5-15) the trail is completely sparrow free!”
Link to how-to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxYDkEe5avM
Sky, it has to be a double-walled polycarbonate roof, like they use in greenhouses. It has channels for airflow so it doesn’t cause the box to overheat. It’s UV/air cooled acrylic. It’s not just plexiglass. I misspoke on that. Dean Rust says he adds extra ventilation just to be sure things stay cool.
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