We have had the same problem with House Sparrows as Laura McCall stated in her post on Sunday. When we were birding in Texas we found a solution that has worked for us. At the DeWinds yard along the Rio Grande River we saw they had hung dozens of metal washers about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter from strings all over their yard. The washers were at varying heights off the ground. We had no idea about their purpose until someone posted on Texbirds that the reason the DeWinds did this was to keep the House Sparrows away and we remembered their yard was free of them. We tried it in our yard and it worked! Wherever we hung the washers the House Sparrows stayed away; if we put down feed in other areas the House Sparrows showed up there. And other birds don't seem to notice the washers at all. I have no idea why it works but it has for us so far and is worth a try. Tommy & Virginia Curtis Smithville, TN DeKalb County =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________