I've got a pair of Carolina Wrens making a nest in a potted fern today. It's fun to watch them. They're using dried grass clippings from the cutting and weed whacking my son did along our walkway yesterday. They're both hard at work! I know I'd never be able to photograph them though. They scatter at the slightest sound or movement on my part. Robin

First off, let me commend you on wanting to help out our native birds. Nuthatches do not often use nest boxes, but an appropriate sized box with a 1 1/8 inch entrance hole is large enough for chickadees and wrens to nest in, but small enough to exclude house sparrows. Also, keep in mind that perches are not only uneccessary, but can do more harm than good as they make it easier for hungry predators to reach into a nestbox and make a snack out of eggs and nestlings. Oh yeah...a few woodpecker species such as flickers and red-bellies will use large nestboxes. If you put one up and fill the entire interior with wood shavings, you'll entice woodpeckers to "excavate" the cavity while preventing house sparrows from claiming it by blocking the cavity.

i make my own from scratch and all the hanging birds like woodpeckers and nuthatches and chickadees and tits love nuts and raisens and sunflowers seeds and pick them out of the suet or molded blocks. In the cold months i make homemade suet with lard or shortning and put peanuts or peanut butter in it. add raisen and mixed bird seed and cornmeal or rolled oats to thicken it, i mold it into either plastic bottoms of the little boxes raspberry or blackberrys come in from the store and put the trays into the suet cages and hang them. But in warm weather i use either molasses or sorgum and peanuts or peanut butter and whatever nuts or sunflower seeds or raisens or mixed seeds and cornmeal or rolled oats to make a thick sticky paste and press it into the woodpecker block cages or the suet cages.

Leslie, I find nest box traps work better in the early spring and summer; I run the bait traps durring the wnter, when I notice EHSs coming to the feeders. Of course, I safely release any native bird that wanders in. For some glorious reason I had only one male EHS this winter. I feed only black-oil sunflower seed; all the native birds love it and it's the least favorite of the EHSs. That's keeps them out of the area too. I bought my neighbor a 50# bag so she'd quit putting out the white and red millet that attracts nothing but vermin. She's delighted with all the song birds she's attracting now. There are probably dozens of native sparrows that are wonderful creatures, to be protected in every way. Like so many concerned blue bird and purple martin "landlaords", the sparrows that I trap (and the only ones that it is legal to trap) are the non-native, human-introduced, English house sparrow. Like so many introduced species, they are destroying our environment. I love the Chipping Sparrows, Song Sparrows, White-Crowned Sparrows, White-Throated Sparrows, Harris Sparrows, Lincoln Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, etc. and try to bring new birders' attention to them and all their charms and benefits. I also try to point out the fact we call EHSs "sparrows" is a misnomer. They are actually a weaver with bill designed to kill other birds, which I have seen him do far too many times. There's nothing like checking your martin colony and finding 14 hatchlings with their heads cracked open. After that, is was very easy for me to practice smart pest control. Have your Purple Martins returned yet? I'm still waiting, but I'm having to form a new colony now, so it will take more patience.