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Hey ladies just a quick note I made my spookers out of dowl and bought from the good old dollar store the “happy birthday” banners and cut them up. I assume this is also mylar – or a close enough twin that they have always done the job for me. made three spookers for under $10 and attached them with pipe clamps.
Our feeders are ABUZZ!!!! so many awesome birds happening! and I”ve got nest construction happening in my “Blue” box!
TRES are hard at work on a bright sunny day!
Oh sorry!! I got it now.
hmm… I’d be interested to see what other people say as I’m not the most experienced here by a long shot.
but I guess it couldn’t hurt… I’m trying to remmeber without reading back through everything (which I probably will go read back through) who ended up winning over your first box. you have lots of action :)ahh Judy your yard sounds abuzz I’m envious!!! :)
I saw a mated pair of TRES checking out my one box yesterday – fingers crossed!!
Personally I think I would leave the box and let the kids sort it out. :) we are helping them by providing nest spaces – and they generally are good together and if they all decide to nest, the territory will be well defended. if there were two “cavity nests” that nature created – they would sort it out, so I wouldn’t think you need to intervene by removing the box. (just mho)
Hey all,
I too was on the old YUKU site and had to get ahold of these lovely ladies (cher?) to help me get my passwords and stuff back. I dont even remember what year I started here I think it was 2009 which would make this ten years!I’m Courtney, from Ontario Canada (about an hour west of Toronto.) I found this site when I moved to a house that had a bunch of old nest boxes filled with “stuff” – which I later learned was HOSPS and Wrens dummy nests! this site has been an amazing resource for me, and a great way to connect with others who enjoy birds, nature like I do. I’m an all around animal lover, two horses, cats, dogs – they all tend to find me, just like the blues and TRES.
Currently hosting a set of paired boxes for the 2019 season, and looking forward to meeting more of you and giving updates. I tend to disappear for awhile, and then when I see pretty birds its a reminder to come visit my birding family!
Hey Brenda
Super late on this post not even sure if you are still around .. but I’m also in Ontario. Courtney! – Hopefully we run into each other hereJudy you’re probably one of the people geographically closer to me than the others on this site (I can drive to michigan in about 4 hours.)
Your experience is almost exactly what mine is. when I started – I had to do HOSP control and was like “ugh I hate this.” so I did mostly passive stuff. I got blues and TRES in paired boxes. on my second year – early in the season, HOSPS attacked and killed the male BB in my first ever box. I was so heartbroken, but this lit a fire in me -a justification of sorts I guess – for HOSP control which I still kind of hate.. but I remember what they do and that makes it a little easier.
From that summer I used my VanERT faithfully – I believe I disposed of 7 sparrows.. and I bought the DRST – I also always keep in mind that its not just about THOSE sparrows, but the number of offspring that they would have produced in a year.. that also makes active sparrow control a little easier as I think about “cleaning house.”
I started with my DRST at my parents as I moved , and my mom wanted to try this stuff – again, in the first summer I had a huge population drop and probably disposed of 12-14 sparrows (we are surrounded by farms and lots of junk food.)
the following summer we fledged BLUES AND TRES successfully, and had a couple of years where only minor issues with HOSPS. Your efforts are NOT wasted. :)I’m back on the more active side of sparrow control this season (mostly because I got a little lazy about it)
I started last week and have trapped 3 males and a 1 female.
Keep on truckin’ girl you got this!!!Congrats Judy I’ve been doing this as well. One thing about HOSPS is they don’t tend to get too fussy when you wreck their nests.. I have one that is a bit higher up so it gets hard to be too picky – I’ve literally pulled the whole nest out, yanked it apart and put a couple of grassy pieces back in and still had it POP within minutes – thats one nice thing about them being sloppy aggressive little things I guess !
Hey Ladies,
I was thinking the same – I’m in Ontario Canada and it has gone from May back to March temps several times already.. and wanna talk RAIN?!! all I”ve had going on is a WACK Of HOSPS.. and too cold too get overly motivated – but as I wrote in my post I finally got rocking on it – and we have some TRES interest on this (first in awhile) sunny and 14 degree morning.
Maybe everything will just happen a little later this year?!Hey ladies thanks for the reply. where i used to live we always had paired boxes, and then I had an additional box elsewhere on the property I’ve always been pretty lucky to have TRES frequently: I have actually had better luck with them than the blues. I think this may be because despite HOSP control we tend to have a high population of them and the TRES are a little more aggressive (in my opinion.) its common for them to dive bomb at anyone near their nest which maybe makes them a little more ‘hardy’ in terms of nesting where there are still a number of HOSPs.. we are moving this fall and I’m hoping to set up a trail on the new property!!
