Greetings... I don't know anything about the different mammals Debra
mentioned in her email, but I do know that my problems with polar bears
decreased drastically once I convinced my neighbor to cease rendering whale
blubber in his backyard . . . ;-) But as house sparrows go, I think it's
worth keeping in mind a couple things. Bruce Peterjohn summarizes the
history of house sparrows in Ohio in his "The Birds of Ohio," and writes
that after being released in a number of southern Ohio cities beginning in
1869, house sparrow numbers increased dramatically, peaking around 1920.
Their numbers began falling after that time, with a substantial decrease in
their numbers between 1966 and today. A lot of this is due to changes in
farming practices and the introduction of automobiles and motorized
vehicles, etc., which replaced a lot of the horses that did the carrying and
hauling around farms and cities as recently as the 1920s. House sparrows
apparently faired well around horses and other livestock, which eat grasses
and grains and produce large quantities of manure and plenty of undigested
seeds, etc. Additionally, there's been a lot of habitat loss, changes in
farming practices, and some nasty winters since the 1960s, and those have
helped to reduce house sparrow numbers. And the sperad of house finches into
Ohio beginning in the 1980s has hurt house sparrows some as well, but most
of the house sparrow decline in Ohio and the rest of North America is
probably due to other causes.
But a thought I have concerning possible increases in house sparrows using
bluebird boxes is that there's probably a lot more bluebird boxes being put
out these days than there used to be, and I'd venture that plenty are being
put in habitat that no selfrespecting bluebird would dream of using--on
cul-de-sacs and in the middle of suburban developments, at Gilmore Ponds,
[ahem. I am among those guilty of lousy nest box placement], and other
places like that. With more and more people providing nesting boxes that
they hope bluebirds will use, it stands to reason that house sparrows will
also have more opportunities to go after boxes in both good and poor
bluebird habitats. House sparrows do like cavities! I suppose Passer
domesticus might be considered the original "Cavity Creep."
I would bet the National Bluebird Society or whatever the national group is
called, would have information on papers and different articles about the
interactions between various cavity-nesting birds. I'm told they keep a lot
of records of different studies along those lines. They might be able to
answer some of your questions.
Take care,
---Mike
(The thought of polar bears has put a few lines from one of my favorite Bob
Dylan songs in my head [the drunken sprawl version performed with The Band
is my favorite version] It's a funny song...
"Everybody's building the big ships and the boats,
Some are building monuments,
Others, jotting down notes,
Everybody's in despair,
Every girl and boy,
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here,
Everybody's gonna jump for joy!
.....................
Everybody's 'neath the trees,
Feeding pigeons on a limb
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here,
All the pigeons gonna run to him.
Come all without, come all within,
You'll not see nothing like the Mighty Quinn." )
----- Original Message -----
From: "Debra Bowles" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Mike Busam" <[log in to unmask]>; <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 12:55 PM
Subject: COMMENTS ON MAMMAL ENCOUNTERS
It is obvious to me that other creatures (including birds) are adapting
faster and faster to human eradication of their habitat.
As a child, we worried about shutting our chickens up to be safe from
predators by 3am. As a young adult, married and still on the farm, we needed
to shut up the chickens by midnight. At the beginning of my now 12 years
near Oxford, we began to see critters out and about when we returned at 9pm
from children's school programs.
Just this past week, a fox took my chickens at 3-4pm in the afternoon. I
happened to hear a rucous (sp?) and looked out the second-story window to
see this fox running off through the weeds. Next day, I saw it again at the
same time. It was a healthy red fox in all its splendor standing between the
barn and house and when it saw me it ran away (dogs were snoozin').
Somewhere it also has a healthy family fed organic chicken.
I used to shoot creatures when they "threatened" my lifestyle. Now in my
50s, I recognize that I am the threatenor, not the threatenee, and when
necessary, I change my management system. The fox has much less flexibility
and is simply trying to survive as are the Coyotes. I've seen Coyote
patterns change too and of course we all know about the Polar Bears, etc.
An observation about birds which I've made over my 50+ years is that House
Sparrows are nesting lower than they used to. I believe House Finches have
dominated the higher "layer" in which House Sparrows used to nest - which
could also help explain the increased use of Bluebird boxes by House
Sparrows.
I've spoken to several specialists/ornithologists about this but no one has
ever heard nor thought of it. Does anyone know of any research on this
topic?
# # #
http://orgs.muohio.edu/AudubonMiamiValley
~ connecting via birds ~
Citizen Science, Debra Bowles
rehabilitating native songbirds via
Second Chance Wildlife
513.875.3433 mailto:[log in to unmask]
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