Spooking Sparrows

 You would not be impolite to ask "What in the world is THAT?" if you have seen Nestbox #4 lately. It is sporting what is known as a "sparrow spooker;" a homemade device made to "spook" the House Sparrows which have been seen recently not far from this box. The reason we want to spook them is that they are aggressive nuisance birds, which are known to destroy eggs and kill nestlings. House Sparrows were introduced to this country in 1851.  They are not protected birds in this country and most people who manage nestboxes evict them if they are found in the boxes, or take steps such as sparrow spookers in order to deter them. As the eggs in this box have not yet hatched, we took this step to protect the eggs. Hopefully, the spooker will deter the sparrows long enough for the eggs to hatch and the birds to fledge. We watched carefully to be certain that the female swallow would accept the spooker and continue to incubate her eggs, which you can see by these photos, she did!