I get very frustrated over the general population concerning feeding house sparrows.  I know that I used to be one of them when it came to House Sparrows. I just didn’t know. I fed them all winter long on bread crumbs and cheapo Wal-Mart bird seed. Then I heard about bluebirds dying because of sparrow attacks  and I thought that they were talking about blue jays. I am native of Pennsylvania and  never seen a bluebird ever!!! My first book I ever read about bluebirds was the Bluebird Monitor’s Guide, talk about getting informed!  Now I get very frustrated when I try to tell my friends who are just raising house sparrows and I get frustrated at myself for not doing more.   My own parents are still living and they to are included in the group of  house sparrow helpers.  Knowing what I now know today about House Sparrows,  I try to inform  people  how cruel the house sparrow can be during nesting time.  Thanks for letting me vent even if this never gets posted.

Signed as myalic

Guess What???? I now have a formed BB nest in my box. I am so excited!!!! I went out & checked a few days ago expecting to find the same sparce nesting material on the bottom of the box, but instead when I opened it up I saw a cupped nest made of pine needles & dried grass. When the female BB got this done I haven’t a clue( I work full time) but I’m so glad she found the time. Since then I’ve noticed pieces of nesting material that she must have dropped so she is still working on the nest. I hope to soon see blue BB eggs. I’ll keep you posted! Thanks for the input

Tammy / Bluebird Fanatic

I tried this homemade recipe for the first time this year and our bluebirds love it. It was developed by someone at the University of Minnesota (I think) who did a lot of experimenting.  Peanut hearts are available at Agway.  We rendered our own suet as describe below. The birds like the cracklings too. Present the food on a platform feeder.

MIX
1 cup peanut butter
4 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup unbleached or whole-wheat flour

ADD:
1 cup fine sunflower seed chips
1 cup peanut hearts (or finely ground nuts)
1/2 – 1 cup Zante currants (or raisins cut in halves)

DRIZZLE and STIR IN: 1 cup rendered, melted suet. COOL
Resulting mix will be crumbly and should have bean/pea sized lumps from the drizzling of the melted suet. If too sticky after cooling, mix in a bit more flour. If too dry, drizzle in more melted suet. Refrigerate any mix you are not using – to prevent suet from turning rancid. You can use a commercial pure bird suet cake or you can render you own suet. To render suet, grind or cube butcher store suet. Melt over low heat. Watch carefully as suet is a fat and can start on fire with too high heat. A microwave can be used. Strain out the stringy bits (cracklings). Cool. Remelt a second time for the recipe.

Phil

Hi! I’m new to this site, and fairly new to Mercersburg, PA. in Franklin County.  I made contact with Joyce Stuff last Summer, at which time she gave me some bluebird boxes to put up.  This Winter, I’ve been seeing lots of bluebirds, which prompted me to put up a bluebird feeder.  I’ve been stocking it with two different types of food that I bought.  One is Bluebird Nuggets “Plus.”  They are a combination of suet, roasted peanuts, and raisins.  The bluebirds don’t seem to like the nuggets very much.  I have also been using dried mealworms.  They really gobble up the worms, and leave the nuggets mostly alone.  It’s hard for me to tell at a distance whether the birds that are getting into the feeder are bluebirds, but I’m pretty sure they are, because on occasion the birds getting into the feeder also will perch on the rail of my porch, where I can tell for sure that they are bluebirds.  I’m wondering if there might be other birds small enough to get into the bluebird feeder, though.  I was buying the mealworms in little bags containing approximately 2000 worms each.  I found that was quite expensive, considering the rate at which the bluebirds were consuming the worms.  Last week, I found a web site where I could get a plastic container with 10,000 worms.  The cost per worm was a lot less that way.

nukeguy001   <Franklin County>

I’m not sure exactly how to blog, but I was checking out the bsp site so I thought why not. I have a completed nest in a Gilbertson nest box I installed last year  in a park near my house.  Last year I had chickadees in it but the house wrens took over and fledged two broods. What should I do to protect the bluebirds when the wren migrate back? Also, I haven’t had HOSP problems yet but I know its just a matter of time, I’m not looking forward to it but no one in my family really understands what is needed to do, I guess I just some psycho bird lady!

First Time Landord,

Signed as  myalci

Hi Everybody,

This is only my second year with BSP, but am enjoying it tremendously.  Last year I got my boxes up too late to get a Bluebirds to nest, so I kept them up all winter, and made sure they were clean and ready to go in the spring.  I have spotted 2 females & 1 male Bluebird.  Usually only 1 female & 1 male come in to feed, but at times I see the females fight at the boxes.  I was jumping for joy when I noticed the female start to build a nest in my PVC box.  She worked feverishly for hours.  I thought for sure she would have the whole nest built in that time(remember I’m new to all this).  After I noticed neither bird at the box I went & checked & the floor was just covered, nothing else. Again I thought there would be more of a nest there.  Also I noticed two doors down a neighbor put up a box, and now it looks like this pair is building in both boxes.  Is that common??????  Could it be the male has a different female for each box.  I haven’t noticed any nest building since.  Does it always take this long.  Any feed back would be appreciated.  I am soooooo excited to have my first nest of Bluebirds in my box (hopefuly my box).  The whole 2 nest building things & 2 female thing is what has me stumped.   Please give me some insight.  Also I’ve never done this blog thing either so be patient with me.

Tammy/Bluebird Fanatic