Texas Bluebird Society - to promote the conservation of bluebirds

NABS invites you to Athens, Georgia for its 30th convention. NABS' new aspirations are to add value to the efforts of our Affiliates throughout the continent, to not lose touch with our grass roots, and to continue to support those without organizations.

The program mixes an impressive list of distinguished academic specialists with fun recreational events.

Keynote Speaker, University of Georgia's Dr. Patricia Adair Gowaty. World authorities address house sparrows, fire ants and paper wasps. Presenters will focus on Eastern, Mountain and Western Bluebirds.

Other activities: bus trips to Atlanta, the Georgia Botanical Garden and Stone Mountain; a local bird walk; a silent auction; educational exhibits and vendors; a NABS reunion and Affiliates dinner; a "Bluebird L" breakfast; and the annual awards banquet with Celtic music.

Registration fee covers admission to all presentations and Saturday, and is required for attendance. As guests of the Georgia Center you will have access to its campus bus system, which boards in front of the Georgia Center. University of Georgia Walking Tour information is available at the Concierge Desks. Parking is limited. An $8-per- day charge for the parking garage next to the Georgia Center may be added to your room bill. Consider parking your car and taking advantage of the buses that are available.

Register using this form by July 30th and receive TEN quilt raffle tickets.

"Our" bluebirds take starring roles!

Photo courtesy of
Melanie Estep

Vanessa Voisinet, a new TBS member, shared this photo (snapped by her husband, Richard) by email with family and friends. Vanessa's mom forwarded the photo to Houston's Channel 2 News (KHOU), and it won their hearts. During two morning broadcasts the photo displayed on a huge background screen. The newscaster shared that the couple that took the photo in their yard belonged to Texas Bluebird Society. Vanessa wrote, "I really liked that they brought up TBS; and, hopefully more people might check into Eastern Bluebirds."

A Lake Tawokoni State Park bluebird in a TBS-provided nestbox with David Shiel's HeatShields and 1" inch fake holes (to catch the attention of bluebird flying overhead) graced the cover of the Spring issue of "Bluebird," the journal of the North American Bluebird Society. Our Lake Tawokoni trail was installed by David's scout troop before the park opened in early 2002. The group tent-camped the night of the 13-inch mid-December 2001 rain. "Built character," said Shiels a TBS charter board member.

Willing to submit photos for Texas Bluebird Society to share? Send photos to photos@texasbluebirdsociety.org Our new photo librarian is Yoshi Beal, in The Woodlands. Yoshi responded to a plea on VolunteerMatch.org. Many of our photos appear in the Photo Gallery of our TBS website.
Check out the new banner on our website, created by Yoshi!

Sparrow Spooker Protects Bluebirds
by Linda Crum

This protected nestbox sits in the
backyard of Linda Crum in The Woodlands.
She added the Sparrow spooker after the 1st
egg was laid, and removed it when the babies
fledged.

"Without question the most deplorable event in the history of American ornithology was the introduction of the English Sparrow." -W.L. Dawson, The Birds of Ohio, 1903

Bluebirds have made a remarkable recovery in this country due to people like you who have put up nestboxes to house bluebirds. Secondary cavity nesters, bluebirds are unable to make their own cavity. They rely on natural cavities, old cavities carved out by woodpeckers or on nestboxes provided by you.

Providing a nestbox is only the first step in assuring that the bluebird will nest successfully and fledge their young. Many predators are known to prey on bluebirds: snakes, raccoons and cats. Proper mounting and installation of a predator guard on the nestbox is necessary to protect the birds. It is better not to put up a nestbox at all than to put up one that leaves bluebirds vulnerable to predators. http://www.sialis.org/baffle.htm

Bluebird landlords are learning that there is another predator that arrives by air that is a very aggressive competitor: the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus or HOSP). These birds were introduced into the United States in the late 1800s and often evict native birds from the nestbox. They not only break and remove eggs but kill both adult and nestling birds. Bluebirds are defenseless against the powerful beak of the HOSP. http://www.sialis.org/hospattacks.htm

Homemade Sparrow Spooker
Photos courtesy of Dave Kinneer

HOSP are non-native, invasive birds and federal law allows removal and destruction of their nests, eggs, adults and nestlings. Passive and active HOSP control methods are available. One of the most popular and effective passive methods of protecting the box against HOSP is the sparrow spooker. Properly installed on the nestbox, the spooker is virtually 100% successful in deterring the house sparrow from entering the nestbox.

Installation of the sparrow spooker on the nestbox is done immediately after the first egg is laid. It will not discourage bluebirds from entering the nestbox once the first egg is laid. It will "spook" the HOSP and none will enter the box. The spooker remains on the box until the young fledge. It is removed immediately after fledging to encourage a second nesting by the bluebird and to avoid HOSP becoming so familiar with it that they are no longer "spooked."

Photo courtesy of David Kinneer.
A recent post on the Bluebird Forum of
Gardenweb reported House Sparrow
teamwork - the male HOSP chased the
male bluebird while the female went into
the box and killed the female bluebird.

A sparrow spooker may spook sparrows but it served as an "icebreaker" between neighbors for TBS member Vanessa Voisinet. She got acquainted with her neighbor when he said, "What's that?" The spooker helped Vanessa and her husband, Richard, educate neighbors about proper techniques for mounting nestboxes. Vanessa said, "It is hard to believe a stick with shiny ribbon attached to a pole on top of a bird box brought two people together."

Homemade sparrow spookers are easy. The one pictured below was made by Dave Kinneer who lives in Virginia and takes the most fabulous pictures. http://www.pbase.com/uncledave

He used old hose connectors with a 45 degree elbow and a one-to-two splitter. Dowel rods were inserted in the holes and secured with screws. Duct tape was used to attach the Mylar strips to the dowels. Instructions for making sparrow spookers can be found at http://www.sialis.org/sparrowspooker.htm

Thanks to Bet Zimmerman and her website http://www.sialis.org for information included in this article.

Linda Crum is a Texas Master Naturalist, Texas Master Gardener and Treasurer of the Texas Bluebird Society. She can be reached at txorganicgardener@gmail.com

From TexBirds, February 19, 2007
by Greg Lasley, Austin

This non-native bird must not be allowed to nest.
House Sparrow graphics courtesy of Cornell Laboratory of
Ornithology / Home Study Course

House Sparrows have the ability to nest in many, many locations, yet they will often deprive our native birds of the only sort of nesting niche they have available to them. Likewise, European Starlings take over virtually every Red-bellied Woodpecker nest in my neighborhood. The woodpeckers works months making the nests, then the more aggressive starlings push them out. House Sparrows and European Starlings are not evil birds at all...they just are not native to North America and they should not been here. Nature provided them a niche in Europe and man they cause many problems for the birds that are supposed to be here. This is just another example of why it's not nice to mess with Mother Nature!

2007 TBS Calendar

Saturday, August 18th - Bluebird Symposium, Camp Chaparral, Wichita Falls

Bluebird Bob Walshaw. Also: Denise Townsend, Kevin McCurdy, and Laura Packer. Early morning nature walk led by local birders. Option at 11 a.m. of a tasting at Wichita Falls Winery, just down the street OR a presentation on bats with live bats! Silent Auction. For details or to donate an auction item, contact John Cys, 940.691.5702. Register using this form .

Friday, October 5th - TBS Annual Dinner & Auction, McKinney Falls State Park Dining Hall (Austin)

Our annual meeting will be in conjunction with the Texas Parks & Wildlife EXPO. This year we'll have a casual get-together with an evening meal and sharing with one another of season's experiences on Friday evening, after setting up our booth at EXPO. A limited number of McKinney Falls campsites are available through TBS for Friday night and/or Saturday night. Contact Pauline Tom, ptom5678@gmail.com or 512.268.5678 to reserve a spot. We have the dining hall reserved, too.

Saturday, October 6th & Sunday, October 7th - Texas Parks & Wildlife EXPO (Austin)

To volunteer to work our booth, contact Ann Thames. semahta@yahoo.com or 979.278.3053. About 40,000 visit this festival! "Expertise" is not required. Just a willingness to accept registrations and distribute nestboxes.

"One Nestbox" membership_nestbox exchange will be offered at all events. New members (and renewals) will receive a complimentary nestbox.

Please submit observations from nestbox visits to www.nestwatch.org . Once you register the "nest site" information, it will be in the system year after year. It may not be apparent, but you may register each nestbox as a nest site, even without a "first nesting."

TBS supplied a copy of the "Multiple Nest Site Visits" data collection form, along with codes, in Volume 6, Issue 1. If you need the form, it can be downloaded at www.nestwatch.org . Or, contact TBS and we'll be pleased to print a set for you.

This is the pilot year. Please report any glitches or make suggestions through the "Contact Us" option on each page on the website.

TEXAS BLUES The Newsletter of the Texas Bluebird Society Volume 6 Issue 2 PDF version (833KB)