HOSP passes Spooker, kills brooding female

13 years ago

Yet another season has been shot to hell by a rocky start.

Today I received a phone call from the neighbor at my 2nd site. Texted him to check the box, and got a call saying he found blood and a dead bird upon checking the box. 2 eggs had been hatched upon last check. A heap of blue feathers filled the nest. A dead nestling and whole egg were found buried in the nest.

No word in the book can describe my utter shock, anger, and upset.

The Spooker failed to do its job. This attack is the FOURTH one by a House Sparrow in the past WEEK! Granted one was because of a lack of sparrow spooker, but clearly these SPOOKERS ARE NOT, I REPEAT, NOT BULLETPROOF!!!

I came home to check the TRES nest and eggs next to my pair of blues who have 5, going on 9-day-old nestlings. Guess what? The eggs? ALL GONE! A noodle dropping was all the evidence I needed.

The 2nd box at my other site? HOSP got those eggs too, leaving them crushed/cracked in the box.

So of 6 attempts, 2 remained safe. One had 4 eggs that the bluebird pair stopped sitting on, but they are still in the area.

The "13" must really be playing its part. Those poor nestlings could be in danger. They're almost all I have now. By the way, I'm gonna try to trap the HOSP at the other site. Sometime in the next two weeks, those boxes are coming down. I've had it. I've put too much effort in to keeping up the site and that spooker did NOT stop that sparrow from murdering my female bluebird.

Any sparrow I can get my hands on will be snapped by the neck and hung as an example. I have no pity for these DISGUSTING creatures, and I will not hesitate to destroy anything of their's I can find.

~Tim
NE Ohio

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Comments (8)

Sara_in_philly
13 years ago
Sorry about your BB and TRES! Even spook couldn't deter the the HOSP. Are these HOSP especially aggressive or they are the norm?
bluebirdbabe
13 years ago
I am so sorry for what is happening to you and your blues. I am wondering if some of this is by the hands of humans. I have had my share of the damn hosp. but they do not go near the spookers. Hoping for more positive results.

Karen
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Comments (17)
I wish I had a DRST...but they are expensive. I don't have many HOSP that try to nest in our yard but there are tons around as there is a car dealership next door and they nest over there. They come to eat at my feeders when their nestlings fledge and I know at that time I could probably trap tons of them. There will be 30+ in the yard then. Ugh. However during the rest of the year there will only be a few coming through at a time. I did have a couple pairs interested in my nestboxes this year...got both of those males and about 4 others with the BB gun. One year there were fledglings around and one was sitting on a branch with the mother right behind it. I shot with the BB gun and got both with one BB! I always put up sparrow spookers as soon as the first egg is laid on the Blues boxes. Last year I lost two TRES nestlings to a HOSP, two more were pecked but made it and two were unharmed. I put up a spooker on that box and those four made it to fledging just fine. I don't normally put spookers up on the TRES boxes because there are just too many of them. I only have two spookers and usually have eleven nestboxes with TRES. Hate those dang HOSP.
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Lost a Dee to a hosp, first killed bird ever. : (
Q
Comments (6)
Sorry to hear of it Lisa. As Kendra said, there wasn't anything you could have done. We all put up SUCH a battle with HOSP! Even then, they still find a way to cause problems. They destroyed my first eggs this year and I only left ONE DAY! Before I could get the spooker up. Then my bluebirds were ready to lay and the HOSP took over their box! That Male HOSP is now K.I.A. The blues moved to my other box and quickly layed but things have been going down (see my posts) All this, and their #s are still seriously down in my neighborhood! I've taken babies, eggs, adult HOSP, you name it. But it only takes one HOSP! Just stay at it, and the HOSP will pay in due time! It's an endless battle, but believe in me and sialis, you CAN get their population down! It's all a matter of time. They were once on the increase in my neighborhood (neighbor's Martin Complex WAS FILLED with them a couple years ago) Continue to make note of others' effective methods. Kendra, how in the HECK do you catch THAT MANY HOSP in just ONE WEEK??? I've had the thing with 2 males and 2 females in it and it can take AT LEAST a WEEK to catch even one or two more! I've caught Chickadees, Song Sparrows, Chipping sparrows, etc. I've had 2 fatalities. 1 dee and 1 song sparrow. But lately it's been mainly all HOSP. I had to remove it from my other site because there were 8 in the trap, and it was knocked over and 4 HOSP (thankfully HOSP!) were found bloodied and decaying in my DRST. I believe it was cats. This was a day or two after my last check. In total, over a 2-4 week period I caught 4-6 HOSP. The other site has a much more explosive population, yet the trap doesn't seem to attract as much attention as everyone on sparrowtraps.net says. Remember though, this is my first season with the trap. In total, not many natives trapped. Wishing you better luck with the HOSP Lisa! When all is said and done, you should have some success this season.
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HOSP help :(
Q
Comments (12)
Where you live sounds like mine :) out in the country, corn fields and horses down the road, and very windy all the time. I have no problems with my spookers. I always have them up! I had no idea about hosp. until I checked my TRES. box(6 years ago) and the hosp killed the female sitting on her 4 eggs and he proceeded to make his nest on top of her. This year a hosp killed my male bb. it was still winter and still very cold and no one was going in and out of the box. One day I saw a hosp. sitting on top of the box and I thought I better get the trap on and get rid of him now. To my horror, there was a dead male bb. Needless to say, it doesn't bother me any more to "get rid" of the hosp. I never even saw a bb around. There was still snow on the ground...who would have thought those nasty birds would kill in the winter too.
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Lets put our heads together... HOSPs
Q
Comments (7)
Lisa, because the males get mates so quickly, I doubt your shooting will cause him to retaliate. Here's an interesting note about the Van Ert: If you catch the FEMALE in an active HOSP nest, try leaving her body in the box afterwards. May sound cruel, but I did this at my 2nd box site, and I caught the Male within 30 seconds of setting and leaving the trap! I walked away and a few seconds later..."SNAP!" ..."Did that seriously just happen??" The only way I caught HOSP in the ground trap (DRST) was by putting a couple live males in first that I caught with the Van Ert. It was sitting out for WEEKS not catching anything before this. I know how impatient it can make you! Keep up with the Sparrow Spookers! I have used them 2-3 seasons now and not had even ONE HOSP attack occur when used. Just remember the time frame to have it up in. With the 3 big control items: Van Ert, DRST, and Sparrow Spooker, I believe this is the best way to bring the population down. I wish they couldn't nest in evergreens! I tear out and destroy eggs and nestings from these year in and year out. It gets exhausting. ~Tim~
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ohsoblue77
Original Author
13 years ago
Sara they must be the WORST and most aggressive.

Karen, I highly doubt humans hand anything to do with this. There was absolutely no feathers around the head. The neighbors are nice people and would never do such a thing. Plus, I found a noodle dropping, which always points to HOSP.

The only good thing I have going is 5 young nestlings at home who just made it through 3 days of 50 degree weather!

~Tim
sagrinin
13 years ago
Tim, so sorry this is happening. Haven't seen any HOSP on my nesting box where the spooker is. I do have another nest box that they like, and will start building a nest even though this box has the fishing line beside the entrance holes. I just put a stick in the hole to keep them out. I have another box they don't come to. Again sorry.
dzyg
13 years ago
Tim, I am so sorry this has happened. This is the third incidence this season that I have heard of a HOSP going in a nestbox with a spooker attached. I have no clue what the other spookers look liked but what does yours look like? Does it have the dowels that come over the roof of the box with streamers hanging down touching the roof of the nestbox all the way from the back to the front of the nestbox? Do you have two dowels coming out over it or just one? That is the only thing I can think of is that the spooker wasn't as scary as it should be. However....HOSP seem to be really bad this year all over the US. I am having way more of them interested in nestboxes than usual this year and so are many others. I am worried about a pair of TRES right now that haven't started laying eggs yet. A HOSP pair is hanging around them...this is at a park where I have a small trail. I have trapped five down there this Spring already.
tmann05
13 years ago
Tim sorry about your losses. Don't give up hope, the season is still early. Have you tried using monofilament + spooker on your boxes? Might be something to try. Also gilbertson pvc boxes seem to be somewhat sparrow resistant. I know when I first switched to them from a wooden house HOSP didn't bother those boxes for at least 2 years. I know there is a big debate whether pvc has enough floor space for EABL and TRES nestlings but I have fledged lots of broods from them over the years. The next few seasons I am going to try different floor dimensions of PVC to try and find what the birds prefer and if there are more, less, or normal amounts of eggs laid depending on the size.
ohsoblue77
Original Author
13 years ago
Dzyg, my Spookers are the ones sold on sparrowtraps.net by Blaine Johnson.

A couple streamers were shorter because the bluebirds pulled at them. This is all I can think of?

Tmann, the very box that was attacked previously had monofilament, which I removed when I added the sparrow spooker.

I trapped that dirty b$#%5 HOSP today, ended its disgusting life. My 2 boxes at this site are now down. After having this happen at this site, I don't wish to go through with it anymore. I have way too much going on and I just feel better not seeing a box where a bluebird was violently killed. My 4 boxes at home are staying up for the rest of the season or longer. The other site was just too much on top of everything else and this attack was the nail in the coffin.
renee_2006
13 years ago
Though sparrow spookers work wonders they are not fool proof. This is the first year I've had hosp even look at a box with the spooker on it.

HOSP passes Spooker, kills brooding female

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Sara_in_philly

bluebirdbabe

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HOSP passes Spooker, kills brooding female

Comments (8)

Sara_in_philly

bluebirdbabe

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sagrinin

dzyg

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