Our TRES returned earlier this week, I think Tuesday. Yesterday a pair of Blues started house hunting, checking all the boxes. Apparently one of the TRES pairs has made thier decision on a nestbox already as there was a big fight this morning between the Blues and the TRES when the male Bluebird approached this nestbox. One of the TRES took him to the ground, the female Bluebird came to see what was going on and the other TRES attacked her. The TRES returned to the nestbox and the Blues to a tree nearby. The Blues did not try to go back to that nestbox but have been checking out a few others on the other side of the yard now. They have plenty boxes to choose from right now, until all the TRES return that is, they get kinda thick around here. Donna

Hey Keith, You are right, they are the same thing. I use the terms interchangably. You can make your own or buy them already made. I get mine from www.sparrowtraps.net and have also bought a sparrow trap from them. I buy enough mounting brackets to go on each of my boxes, putting the mounting bracket on as soon as I make a house. I then add the spooker as soon as the first egg is laid. I have never had a blue bird not accept a spooker, nor have I ever had a sparrow try to claim a box after a spooker has been added. I had two spookers from last year and I bought 4 more this year thinking that six would be enough. However, I now have 10 boxes with blue birds and three with tree sparrows. I need to order (or make) seven or eight more to make sure I am covered. Phil

Lisa - thanks for the play-by-play. Your little Hussy sounds like such a character! Congrats on the five new blues!

As I wrote in my post, my reference was to domestic cats, not to feral or barn cats who live their lives without being fed or receiving immunizations, deworming, external parasite prevention, and other routine veterinary care. I have precise first hand knowledge of what species my cats have killed over the past 40+ years and a good idea of how many of each because they bring their quarry home to my front porch and, being well fed, only occasionally do they eat one of their game animals. I could probably count on my fingers the number of birds my cats have killed over the past decades, and among these were a few English sparrows. I would say that on average 6 to 11 baby barn swallows have fledged from nests on our front porch and eaves of the barn each year, despite the presence of our cat(s.) The parent bird who fell victim this year is the only swallow killed by one of our cats ever, so I'd say that the survival rate is highly stacked in favor of the swallows. (Seven on average x 40 some years is a large sum of swallows that have come into being on my felines' terrain.) Toxoplasma gondii only poses a threat to developing fetuses and those with severely compromised immune systems. It is important that pregnant women avoid contact with litter boxes. Other than this caution, the risks posted on the inflammatory website you posted are highly exaggerated. As I also stated, this is a moot point since my current kitty has only perhaps another year of going outdoors and I do not intend to replace her when she is gone. We will have to agree to disagree on this point.