Donna, I've been seeing the same activity all morning here in my backyard, all of a sudden HOSP are checking out my nest boxes and on in particular keeps going into my Bluebird box and has a female with him. I haven't seen HOSP here in Western MA since the fall. I even had my bluebird box plugged up and no sooner do I unplug it and they are back!

This is really concerning me, I have been thinking the same as you regarding the bluebirds and TRES. If the HOSP are trying to set up house now, I won't stand a chance at having blues nest in my yard, nor would I want them to come and be in jeapordy with these nasty HOSP around.

How much do the inbox traps cost? Do they really help eliminate HOSP or at least scare them off for a while? I don't know what to do, I will probably go out and plug up the box again atleast until March. I'm also sure that they've aleady started filling the box with junk.

Just wanted to commiserate with you Donna, I know exactly how you feel?

Linda

Linda, the Van Ert traps are so easy to use and very effective. They are only $8 plus $2.50 shipping. I am going to order another one as I only got one last year and it was used well, I want to be better prepared this year though! I will include a link to the site at the bottom. You send in the order form off the site but then need to mail a check to them but you will get it very quickly. My dh made me some Gilbertson birdhouses last year and these work so well for installing the van erts as they are front opening. The only thing I have to say about using the van erts, you want to trap the HOSP and then you dispose of it, you don't just want to scare it away cause then they will just come back. Oh and a tip on the van erts, they have an orange dot that you can see when the trap is sprung, they will be more effective if you can cover this orange dot up with a leaf. I got that tip off of here last year and it worked wonders!

On a bad note I saw yet another pair of HOSP out back so I went and installed my van ert again, no luck yet though.

Donna

Here is a link that might be useful: Van Ert inbox traps

I just had to say ,Donna, that you gave me a chuckle when you said you introduced him to "Mr Remington". Too funny. I have one box up, and another I would like to get up soon. I think this may be the perfect opportunity to make introductions to Mr. and Mrs. Sparrow before the Bluebirds begin nesting. I also saw some HOSP today for the first time this winter though thankfully not at my house (yet). Mr. Remington does not live here, but the Van Erts do.

I have a similar problem and it's much worse than last year. My neighbor has rough cut field stone instead of siding on the front of his house and there are shutters on both sides of each of the five windows across the second floor. That makes a lot of crevices for HOSP to nest in and I counted at least six or seven nests there last year that the HOSP used over and over. They are only 400 feet from my back yard where there is water and food I put out for the bluebirds.

I stopped feeding seed but the HOSP discovered the mealworms and are constantly out there. In fact, they seem to follow the blues and know when I put the mealies out. The blues are here all year round and usually chase them away but sometimes the HOSP fly in with as many as a dozen males and simply overwhelm the two adult blues. I live in a development where they get nervous if you talk about Red Ryder, much less Mr. Remington.

And to top it off, my daughter wants me to go with her to Ireland this summer. I am in my 70's and have wanted to go for a long time. I keep making excuses but between you and me, I would worry they whole time about my blues.

Dave

I don't blame you Dave, I would worry too! Although I've only lived in my new house for 2 years now, I have just put up a BlueBird box in hopes of attracting them to my yard. I have bird feeders around my yard and also a birdbath, along with gardens and trees, however, I am really concerned about the amount of HOSP I'm seeing lately. It's scary!

Wow Dave, tough choice you have there! Too bad there isn't a way to elimante all the HOSP in your area so you can take your trip in peace! I know I would be worried too. Do you have a ground trap? Or would that upset the neighbors too? If there are that many HOSP I would think that would be the way to go, either that or set up a dummy house now with a van ert and try to get them one by one. Hard with the Blues there checking out housing too but maybe you could place the dummy trap house out of site of the current nestbox that the Blues use. Good luck, hope you can take that trip to Ireland, I can't imagine the beautiful pictures you would come back with!!

Donna

Dave - I love bluebirds so I feel your concern. I also love Ireland. I was there back in the 1980's and it was more than I had hoped it would be. My advice, take the trip. You won't believe the green...if you've never been there...it's not the same color we know.

Dave it would be a real shame to miss a trip like that with your daughter. I've never been but my Mom has been there twice and loved it. You could use a nest box to trap them with a 1 1/4 inch opening. That way the Blues can't get in. The hosps don't really like that size as much but if you plug up the larger hole they will use the smaller one. You still need to monitor it because of Dees, Nuthatches, and Titmice though. The DRST is really the way to go if you have a lot of them. If you can get the stupid hosps eating bread or popcorn you don't catch as many natives in it. In my experience the natives learn quickly. If you catch them once and let them go they don't get in there again. You can really catch a lot quickly and reduce the threat. It seems there would be a way to hide it somewhere from the neighbors.
Good Luck Cathy

Actually, I've had a male bluebird get into a nestbox box with 1-1/4 inch opening (a trap box intended for HOSP). I'm sure it wasn't easy, but it is possible. Fortunately, I always monitor the traps and/or trap boxes at least hourly, and released him quickly, with humble apologies.
Dave, if you are really concerned with the safety of the bluebirds, you might feel better closing the nestboxes temporarily. The bluebirds won't take it personal, they will adapt, and they will most likely return when you welcome them again. Sometimes we have to think what is best for them, no matter how difficult it is for us. I feel that way about hand feeding them, for example. I would never do that, because I don't want them to be so used to people that they might think all humans are safe.
BlueBars

Anything is possible! LOL The birds don't read the books. I'll bet it took him a while to get in. Like I said you MUST always monitor because of other species anyway.
Cathy

Thanks for all the suggestions and encouragement. I have decided to follow your advice and take the trip to Ireland if my daughter is still wanting to.

To answer some of the comments. I do have a DRST and in the past have had a lot of luck with it later in the year. I have been using mixed bird seed as bait but seem to catch mostly house finches and song sparrows in it. Also, I have a squirrel that regularly cleans out the bait. This morning I tore up a couple of slices of white bread and sprinkled them around the trap. Hopefully that will get the HOSP interested. I have some popcorn that I will also try.

I do have a dummy nest box. It has the screws for the Van Ert installed on the rear of the door and last year I caught about a dozen in it. Trouble is right now the blues are protecting that one too.

A couple of weeks ago I bought and installed a slotted opening (Kentucky style) box and the blues seemed to like it a lot. I also bought an in-box camera but when I went to install it in the slotted box, I found the pitch of the roof was not steep enough and the camera was level with the opening. I was afraid the birds would bang into it when they entered so I replaced that box with one I had made that had a steeper roof and featured the more common 1 1/2 inch round opening. The camera worked fine and the blues seemed to cope with the design change. But then I decided ** to convert that box to the slotted style, so I removed the door, cut one of identical width and installed the new door, leaving the slot at the top. Again the birds seemed to have no problem handling the change. I still have the door with the round hole opening and can switch back in a matter of minutes if an unexpected complication arises.

Right now the only thing I can see is that the steeper pitch of the roof brings the overhang down a bit more than the store bought slotted box did. The adult blues have no problem flying up and under the overhang but I wonder if it will be a problem for the nestlings when they fledge. Since 2005 I have had 55 babies fledge from my one box and every one has flown out and up to the trees (except one time when I had the box turned too much toward my house and two out of four flew up on the deck). But I wonder if this overhang might cause them to fly down on the grass.

The HOSPs do seem curious about the box, whether the opening is round or slotted. It may be because it is so prominently placed. Right now they seem content to nest behind the shutters on my neighbor's house.

I appologize to you Donna for such a lengthy post on your thread. But I have been itching to talk about my new boxes (and my HOSP concerns) and this seemed like a good place and time to do it. If anyone has walked down this path before and can forsee problems vis-a-vis the interchangable doors, or fledging problems with the overhang -- or anything else, I would welcome your comments/suggestions/advice.

**I really hope to get a picture of two or more speckled heads peeking out at the same time on fledge day, but not at the expense of my birds.

Dave

No need to apologize Dave, it is a natural transgression of the post to get into other HOSP problems and solutions and to your nestboxes. I have no clue about if the pitch of the roof with a bigger overhang with affect how the babies fledge or not though. I do know once when I watched the babies fledge from one of our nestboxes, the first one went straight to the tree that is about 40 feet in front of it, the next two took an immediate left and flew up against the flowers on the side of the house, no clue why.
I wish you lots of luck with your ground trap, hope the bread works!!

Donna

Hiya Dave, sometimes folks use a PVC cap and put the camera in the cap, and then drill a hole in the roof and put the cap on top of the hole. That way it doesn't interfere with head space.

You might try a magic halo on a mealworm feeder.

I had a bluebird squeeze into one of Van Erts Urban trap boxes (with the trap pre-installed in a wooden box) - the hole wasn't quite 1.25" so I had to put a reducer on it.

Here is a link that might be useful: magic halo to deter HOSP from feeders