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Glad to know, Fred. Last Year I had my first mocker and he was such a bully. Finally he disappeared and I was thrilled that he was gone. This winter he’s back. I tried so hard to not let the mocker see me feeding my bluebirds mealworms but at some point he noticed and then would intimidate my bluebirds. Hopefully he’ll move on like last year. So I feel for Neil.
Tammy
Yes…Could be. They might nest early this year but I hope not because our weather can change quickly and I don’t want those babies exposed to super cold temps. Sometimes they act like this and then stop building for several weeks.
Tammy
Let us know how you do. I hope I’m not repeating info..But
Sprinkle millet on the landing area and even around the trap to get the HOSP coming to that area. If you have it resting on a table or something sprinkle a little on that area. And of course the bait area. Nesting material is a good idea.Tammy
We had a man on here. Neal, that advocated painting boxes white to lower the temperature inside the box. He had statistics to back it up. I haven’t heard from him for awhile.
Tammy
Some people stop.feeding their other birds while bluebirds are nesting. Several on here do that. But I don’t and don’t seem to have issues. It would discourage HOSP from your backyard though but you’d have to give up your other birds.
Tammy
Hi Ellen.
How great you have a bluebird pair. Up here in NW Ohio that would be very normal. Often for the first nest my bluebirds build it and then wait. I’m not sure about down there. So it could she normal or they could have decided on another nestboxes somewhere else but my guess is that they are still planning on using that. Time will tell. Do you have a predator guard on your pole? It’s a must down there where you have rat snakes etc.Tammy
That works. But just be really careful using Suet. Other things will work. When the birds start nesting and having babies you’ll have much better luck.
Tammy
I agree, peanut butter suet works great!! I try not to use that though, because I kept catching my bluebirds in the trap and I’m not all that great at checking the trap for native birds sometimes. The only time I use peanut butter suet in the trap is when I’m trying to catch Starlings in the wintertime.
Tammy
That’s great, Renee. I’ve tried them twice and find a bunch on the ground. My little blues are spoiled. I put the rest of the two containers in suet because birds wouldn’t eat them. Do you hydrate them? I hydrated mine too….still didn’t work.
Tammy
Usually if I order on Monday they’d get to my house by Wed. If I order on Monday from Rainbow that’s in CA, I usually get them on Thursday, one day later. I’ve never used Nature’s Way. I’ll have to look them up. The only othe thing that bugs me about Grubco is their phone etiquette….they are abrupt.
Tammy
Well, they went halfway to redeem themselves by volunteering to ship it next day UPS without me having to exorb the extra shipping cost. Although I think I deserved something a little more than that. There excuse was that my credit card wouldn’t go through and they didn’t have the right phone number but I feel that’s not totally true. They could have gotten the number off of caller ID and I’ve used my card several times this week with no problem. Oh well.moving on.
Tammy
Kirk, I have found that red millet is not a house sparrow’s favorite food. They seem to ignore it. In my opinion cracked corn isn’t a good option either. I use white millet only or mixed seed with a lot of white millet in it and little to no red millet. Try that. Some people use bread. The winter months isn’t the best time to trap but soon it will be better. It takes awhile for you to catch the first one but after you have the first one the others will trap easier.
You have to keep the first one as a decoy in your holding area and try to keep it alive as long as poosible by supplying with food and water because it will be what draws the others in.
I often catch my first one with a inbox Van Ert trap and then I put that HOSP in the holding area of the repeating trap as a decoy.
Put the trap right under where you see the HOSP (house sparrows) perching a lot. If it doesn’t work one place after a few weeks then put it somewhere else.
So first change to white millet or bread but not red millet. People use the fishing line, or string on their feeders but personally I don’t like to do that. They get used t it and I’d rather save it for the bluebird nest boxes. Get back with us and maybe we can give you other suggestions.Tammy
The “after the first egg is laid” rule is for both reasons,the HOSP might get used to the spooker but mostly the bluebird might be scared away if the spooker is up earlier. The egg bonds her to that box.
You can successfully experience watching bluebird babies grow with HOSP around but sooner or later you’ll find you have to trap. It could be right away that you run into HOSP wars or it could be 3 years down the road…But it will happen.Tammy
