Simple Power Pulse -- HOSP

There will of course be an equilibrium, but that equilibrium will be mostly or all English Sparrows and few or no Bluebirds, lacking intervention from man. I have had Bluebird boxes up in my yard for 4 years now; the first two years I had only one box and the Bluebirds arrived first in the spring, built a nest and hatched chicks before the English Sparrows arrived, invaded the nest, pecked the brains out of the mother Bluebird, and built a new nest on top of the carcases (babies just allowed to starve). This is extremely common English Sparrow behavior which might be acceptable except for the fact that English Sparrows are grain eaters and Bluebirds are bug eaters. Since I don't use pesticides I prefer bug eaters, they also provide entertainment by swooping around the mower (which kicks up lots of bugs) when I cut the lawn.

English Sparrows have the same protection in the US as the Norway Rat, killing them is highly encouraged at all times in all 50 states. Don't be fooled by the "English" in the name, they are originally from Africa, but with the help of man have spread to nearly every country in the world. They have caused a dramatic reduction in the Bluebird population here, although the Bluebird population is recovering somewhat due entirely to humans keeping the English Sparrows out of their artificial nest boxes.

After entertaining a brief fantasy of a Bluebird box with a video bird identification system and a guilotine in the door set to chop the head off any English Sparrow which attempted to enter, I put up two more boxes even though there is only enough yard for one Bluebird family. The English Sparrows will preferentially use an empty box if one is readily available nearby. I let them lay a set of eggs and start incubating (so that the mother is reliably in the box in the evening), then I stuff a cork in the entrance, take the box down, empty into a clear plastic bag, kill the mother (just grab and squeeze) and dump the whole nest on the compost pile and reset the trap (put the empty box back up), repeat 5 or 6 times. Since I started this the Bluebirds have fledged sucessfully (last two years) even though there is no noticable reduction in the number of English Sparrows in the yard.

This is not a problem in the UK only because there are no Bluebirds there.

Regards, Glen

I read in sci.electronics.design that Glen Walpert wrote (in ) about 'Simple Power Pulse -- HOSP', on Thu, 9 Dec 2004:

I expect you go to church regularly, too. You deliberately attract the birds so that you can kill them. You are beneath contempt.

No - but since you insist - The expressed desire/need to fry some maligned bird with electricity at the push of a button, so one can watch and feel the power over life & death, smells, to me, of sadism looking for a "legal" outlet!

I read in sci.electronics.design that Rich Grise wrote (in ) about 'Simple Power Pulse -- HOSP', on Fri, 10 Dec 2004:

I don't accept that enticing birds which do no harm to people simply to kill them in a cruel way is in any way defensible. The person concerned even admitted that his activity made no appreciable difference to the sparrow population, so it is simply gratuitous killing.

The killing of species that actually harm people is a consequence of how the Universe works. I wish it wasn't so, but that, of course, is futile. And we don't go seeking rats and roaches; they come seeking us.

I read in sci.electronics.design that Rich Grise wrote (in ) about 'Simple Power Pulse -- HOSP', on Fri, 10 Dec 2004:

We have strips of adhesive plastic tape with thin wires projecting vertically about three inches, to stop pigeons and other birds settling.

):

By deliberately trying to provide boxes for native bluebirds? I am sure you are deliberate when you chew your meals -- so share the guilt of being a killer.

No, Mr. Walpert says he puts up the boxes to attract the sparrows, and then acts in what can only be described as deliberately cruel.

To prevent sparrows colonizing blue-tit boxes in Britain, it is simply necessary to make the entrance hole less than an inch in diameter. It appears not so easy with bluebird boxes, but a method claimed to be effective can be found at

Incidentally, if anyone reading this knows anything about the silent telephone calls I've been receiving, originating outside UK, I would mention that one of my US colleagues takes a *professional* interest in such activities.

No, you are completely wrong in this. I kill only those vermin that directly threaten the native birds nesting here in the most humane way I know; grab them quickly ang squeze them just hard enough to prevent breathing; they die in under a minute with no parts broken. If you know a more humane method I would be glad to try it. You would be hard pressed to find a single orinthologist or wildlife biologist in this country who would object to what I am doing, in fact they encourage it. And while my actions alone do not much impact the English Sparrow population, combined with the actions ot tens of thousands of like-minded bird lovers we are sucessfully reducing the population of English Sparrows in most parts of the US, with a corresponding significant recovery in the once threatened Bluebird population.

If you think my method is inhumane, compare to more common methods such as the mechanical traps used at a "biodynamic" (environmentally freindly) farm near me (and many others), which is run by a group of Quakers who are very active in environmental preservation. These traps have a perch in front of a seed tray, when a bird lands on the perch in is flipped into a box full of dead and dying birds where it will die of dehydration. The other common method used by more profit oriented farmers is of course poison. I will not use either of these methods.

I have run across extreme "don't kill anything" attitudes like yours before, but only in city dwellers who live almost totally isolated from nature, most of whome would probably die if someone else did not kill and clean food for them. From a window in my mouse-free house I can look past my rat-free barn to the reduced-vole orchard, or past the large groundhog-free garden to the bog where Herons can sometimes be seen catching frogs, past the brambles I planted for wildlife to the row of trees from which hawks hunt rabbits. Bait, trap and kill of varmints is just a routine chore here, done without malice to any creature in the most humane way I know.

English Sparrows (which are actually not true sparrows, they are members of the Finch family) are varmints here and not there for the same reason that rabbits are normal here and varmints in Australia. Do you also think the Ausies should just let rabbits take over and displace native species? If you would consider the matter rationally instead of emotionally you would realize that, as an owner of habitat suitable for native cavity nesting birds, it would be highly immoral of me to not kill as many English Sparrows as possible with any means which does not cause undesirable side effects.

English Sparrows actually do harm me by directly killing an extremely beautiful native bird which is part of my insect control strategy for the garden and orchard I use for food production, even though they are not as effective as the pesticides I could use instead. And I do not seek them, they come to me. If I did not kill every English Sparrow which attempts to use nest cavities which I placed for the benefit of native birds, they would eventually kill my Bluebirds again. Merely evicting them is ineffective (I tried it), they just move to the next available cavity, like the one with Bluebirds in it. And, as I said, my Orinthologist approved method has been adopted by bird lovers around the country and has proven to be highly effective in preserving the native bird population. What have you done to preserve wildlife lately?

Regards, Glen

Who eats pigeons? Well, the occasional cat may do it but IMO that's all for the better. Since AFAIK nobody eats cats the problem stops there.

- YD.

I read in sci.electronics.design that YD wrote (in ) about 'Simple Power Pulse -- HOSP', on Sun, 12 Dec 2004:

Pigeon pie can be very good. On Discworld, gargoyles eat them, too.

I believe cats are eaten in some countries in the Far East.

During WW2, it was alleged that many of the 'rabbits' sold (not rationed) were very feline. I remember one occasion my parents decided that the 'rabbit' was sufficiently strange-tasting not to be safely edible.

Or you could get a few servos, a laser pointer, a tiny bullet camera, a small high-pressure air compressor, a remote control joystick, and a fully-automatic BB rifle. Assemble the aforementioned in an inconspicuous place, then unleash hell's fury when the birds decide to invade your property. WARNING: The postman is off-limits. So is the neighbor's dog...

:)

While electrocution might work and might actually be more humane than other methods now in use, it is fraught with problems not the least of which is that this method has no existing precedent that I know of.

How about modifying a standard mechanical sparrow trap to require a remote controlled electrical trip after you make a positive identification of the bird? These traps are readily available and generally accepted as a humane method of eliminating House Sparrows; only a few misinformed fanatical opponents of wildlife conservation object to them, and heeding those few is obviously very wrong.

It should be quite easy to modify the perch weight activated trigger with a solenoid trip interlock, and put a microswitch on the perch to alert you with a bell to the presence of a bird so you can look and make the trip/don't trip decision. I would suggest a small 12 volt automotive solenoid and a cheap doorbell, only 3-conductor low voltage wiring required.

Regards, Glen