March 29, 2017
Discovered another House Sparrow egg in Nestbox Alpha in spite of the fact that we had removed the nest a few days earlier. Removed the egg. Also noticed nesting material in Nestbox Bravo. Since we have observed House Sparrows in and out of that box, we removed that material as well.
Later this morning, we observed sparrows at both boxes, so we will seal up entrance holes to discourage further activity, at least for the time being.
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The only way to discourage House Sparrows is to remove the male. They sleep in the box at night while nest building so it is relatively easy to trap them inside after they've gone to roost and dispose of them in the morning.
Thank you for the advice. It's the disposing part that we are having some trouble. We are a little squeamish about the final solution, so to speak. But we are working ourselves up to the task.
Someone I know with nest boxes just found a dead female chickadee in their nest box because of House Sparrows. They will kill whole nests full of baby bluebirds or swallows to take over the box. Over at Sialis.org they say, "please do not put up a nestbox if you are unable or unwilling to monitor it and prevent House Sparrows from nesting." It really is that important.
Check out http://www.sialis.org/hosp.htm for information on how to manage House Sparrows.
vermfly, we are monitoring the nestboxes at least every other day and removing any House Sparrow nesting materials. I have visited the sialis site (one of the best websites on any subject that I have seen) and am aware of the damage House Sparrows can do. Thank you for your encouragement.
I'm very happy that you've taken on the challenge of nest boxes for bluebirds and other cavity nesters. They need all the help we can give them.
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