I just moved to the central coast of California, and there's a type of bird called a towhee that roots around in tangled bushes in my front yard. I really don't have a problem with that; but these pesky birds seem to take great delight in flipping decorative bark out of the planters and onto my driveway and into the street. I used my blower for the first time to get all the bark pieces back where they belonged, then I was gone for about one hour and returned to find an amazing amount of bark thrown back into the street and onto portions of my driveway. I might have to consider replacing the bark with rock; but is there any chemical repellant and can spray or otherwise distribute on the bushes these birds like to play in, so I can spend more time with yard maintenance other than cleaning up after these dang birds. I've never seen anything like it.

Hi all, I am pretty new to bird feeding and do not participate in the Project Feeder watch, but I think it sounds interesting. Last spring I put up a small ceramic tube feeder and fill it with Black oil sunflower seeds. It attracts chickadees, titmice and nuthatches, and an occasional House finch. The squirrels have managed to jump on the pole it is suspended from, but they give up trying to get the seed because the holes and perches are too small for them to get the seed out and the ceramic is impenetrable. A month ago, I decided I wanted to add a suet feeder so I built a suet log feeder. I chose a red pine log about 20" long and 4" diameter that already had some natural perches. I drilled 1 1/4" holes all about the log, and have glued a total of six perches under some of the holes. The log is pole-mounted on about six feet of leftover copper heating pipe. I drilled a 15/16" hole up the middle of the log, and simply slide it over the pole. Very easy to remove. I made a simple suet mixture using suet from the grocery store, peanut butter, rolled oats, whole wheat flour, and some leftover nuts. Total cost of feeder: 0$. Total cost of suet mixture: $5 (only used 1/3 of it so far too) The birds LOVE the new feeder. So far, I have regular visits from Chickadees, Titmice, Nuthatches, and even Juncos and Bluejays jump up and eat some suet. No woodpeckers yet though (that I've seen). NO squirrels have managed to get up the pole to the suet (as yet). Here are a couple photos of the new feeder, with little friends.

The box that the sparrows nested in was designed and put up for Downy Woodpeckers. It's about 15 or 20 feet high, in a tree. Nothing has nested in the bluebird houses I put up yet,(on poles with predator guards) unless you count paper wasps and earwigs. : ) There was a titmouse nesting in the woodpecker house originally. Until I read your site, I thought that the titmice nestlings had fledged, and THEN the sprarrows moved in. Now I'm not so sure. The only active method I think I'd personally be comfortable with would be piercing the eggs of the HOSPs. That seems like the most humane way. But I'd have to get the courage to go up the ladder to do it, as my SO is the one who mounts anything high in our yard. (I'm not too crazy about heights.) After reading your site, I have he changed the feed I put out to black oil sunflower seed. Previously, I had woodpecker feed, with corn in it,and had tons of starlings and sparrows. Now it's just titmice, chickadees, cardinals and bluejays. Plus the goldfinhes at the niger feeder. Not as much activity as before, but better than the hoards of starlings and sparrows. By the way, how do you think the toad got in the box, with it being so high? It wasn't tree frog, just an ordinary greyish-tan toad.

I agree after a hosp claimed my bb box this spring I installed a van ert trap yesterday and trapped the male this morning and quickly dispatched him. I haven't seen the female and I did notice the bb back and inspecting it this later in the morning so I removed the trap lest they be trapped. I will remove the box altogether for a week or so if I see hosp in the area again. I don't think the bb are nesting in our area yet, just the hosp who build nests a few weeks before the bb.