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I don’t have mine out. I had put it away for company and never got it out again. I so need to start trapping. With tomorrows snow I’m not sure if it’s worth putting it out tomorrow.
Tammy
Welcome, Marcel. Nice video Marcel! I have never had 13 bluebirds at once!! The most I’ve had is maybe 6, the siblings and parents from the last nesting. You can try a sparrow spooker on your house. It helps most of the time with discouraging house sparrows. Is your acorn nestbox easy to monitor? (an access door to look in on things?)We just switched forums here so it will take awhile for everyone to find this and even then our numbers are a little low here recently. But usually there’s plenty of activity during nesting season. Something else you might want to have on hand is a Van Ert trap. It’s a trap you put inside a nestbox. When you have a HOSP claiming a box you can trap it with this trap. I’m not sure if it would work with your Acorn box. Is the Acorn Box a decorative box? I’m a little worried about it.
Tammy
I agree, but sometimes I think what does it matter. They flock in to eat my BOSS! They adjust.
Tammy
Don’t clean out your future bluebird nestbox. Buy a Van Ert trap on line at http://www.vanerttraps.com/. Trap those house sparrows after they start building. A life saver!!! If I was only allowed to own one trap it would be this one. They are very inexpensive little traps that you put inside your nestbox.
Tammy
Chris, you can successfully have a bluebird nestbox, even with an abundance of HOSP.
I’m like you and have a arborvitae line right by my house and I can hear the cheep cheep of the HOSP constantly. I’ve dwindled down my numbers some, but they keep coming. My numbers are as follows:
2009- 406
2010-111
2011- 352
2013- 86
2014- 130
2015- (not sure yet. I’m afraid the numbers aren’t good as I was lazy this year)
Maybe I’ll be better if you keep me accountable. During that first year I was on a forum and we were in competition with each other so it spurred me on.
But I’m showing you this to say that you can successfully have bluebirds. It is a little more of a battle for those with a lot of hosp like us but I’ve had great success.
If you wait until you your numbers are low….you’ll never do it.
I live 5 miles away from Anderson’s grain elevators and I’m wondering if that is an issue even though it seems far enough away.
209 since mid summer is amazing!!Tammy
Put my trap out. Right away caught 3 juncos and then 2 again later. I’d better try raising my trap. Although I never have anything at home to put it on. I could put it on 5 gallon buckets but they are usually are white and then a raccoon will come by and topple it over. I’ll look in my garage and brainstorm. I usually keep it on the ground with great results but so far just juncos.
Tammy
Merry Christmas to you too, Carol. My bluebirds have only visited me a couple of times so far. This is how it was last year too. All the years before they were here almost every day like clockwork. :( It looks like it’s mostly just you and me on here. It might have worked better if we had switched things over in the middle of the season after the regulars were heavily involved. Oh well…time will tell. Maybe they will come over during the beginning of the New Year.
Tammy
You should have a personal message option. It’s on the right-hand side of the page and it’s called Your Cafe Mailbox. It shows when you are on the main forum page. (haven’t tried seeing it on the others.) Do you see it?
Tammy
The only caution with that is, the house sparrows might get used to the monofilament line and so they may not be as spooked as usual with your sparrow spooker. I don’t do it for that reason but give it a try and see what happens. let us know.
Tammy
