Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 22:21:11 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Katharine Patterson Subject: Re: House Sparrows MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit House Sparrows are non-native and, therefore, are not protected, so, as awful as it may feel, it is OK to destroy them. Having tried traps, mist nets, removing their nests and putting up additional boxes, I resorted to a BB gun. I have found that they will just keep making nests if you remove them. I have also found that removing Sparrow nests, with or without babies, results in deadly retaliation towards nearby nesting Bluebirds. If you don't live in an area where you can use a BB gun (we live in a rural area), I have found shaking the eggs and returning them to the nest keeps them occupied and less aggressive toward neighboring bluebirds. There are people who feel the House Sparrow is only doing what it is supposed to do to survive and that it wasn't their fault they were brought to this country. I, on the other hand, have witnessed what they do to baby bluebirds (as well as adults) and had no trouble using the BB gun. I have been free of House Sparrows three years now. Katharine Patterson Butler, Md ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================