u/Formal-Ad-7184

I recently moved to an area with a park close by with Eastern Bluebird boxes along the trails. I was so excited when they started showing up at my feeder for mealworms!

Unfortunately, the area is also home to house sparrows like most other places I’ve lived. There’s a nest in our neighbors bushes and I’m not close enough to say anything to them about it. I don’t want to come off a certain way after I’ve just moved in. Well since these sparrows found the feeder, they’ve eaten most of the mealworms I put out among other things.

The more I read about them taking over nest boxes, the less I want to keep the feeders stocked. I’ve looked into trapping but I don’t have the heart to kill even an invasive species. I’ve come to the conclusion that taking the feeders down outside of the thistle feeder for the goldfinches is the best option for my conscience.

The reason I’m posting this is just to share my experience and my heartbreak of not seeing the bluebirds on a daily basis. The first day he flew over to the yard and the feeder was gone was just an awful feeling to be honest. If anyone else is dealing with these same feelings, just know you are not alone out there.

EDIT: I wasn’t expecting all the comments and empathy but it does mean a lot. It’s comforting knowing there’s a community of people out there that struggle with some aspects of this hobby. Thanks to all of you for your support and kindness.

Our yard is largely garden and native meadow, but this one corner has nearly every invasive plant other than garlic mustard and knotweed.

Swallow wort, bittersweet, sumac, Virginia creeper, barberry, bindweed. I don’t know how to even begin tackling this, it’s spreading into the meadow area and the swallow wort and VC are encroaching on nearly everything within a 5 yard radius. I know it will just keep getting worse every year.

Is it the sheer amount of them? Is it specific human controlled grazing practices? Has the landscape just changed and is not able to support that many large grazing animals anymore? Is there something specific about bison that made them able to survive off the land without destroying it? I guess this is more an ecology question, but I guess I wanted an answer with the idea of bison potentially one day returning to their massive numbers in mind (or at least an increase in conservation herds. I sadly dont think they could return to their historical population of tens of millions).

Anyway, I’m basically asking why feral/domestic livestock are causing damage rather than filling that keystone spot bison held. I’m also curious about what reintroducing massive numbers of bison would look like compared to the current millions of head of cattle currently grazing all across North America. They obviously can’t exist at those numbers at the same time, and the beef industry isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. So, of course this is all just hypothetical because I like bison and was wondering.

Picture of a bison I saw on a hike because why not? He was really close to the trail, so I had to take a detour after snapping this quick photo. Don’t worry, I stayed as far away as possible.

These little trees (I suppose) grew unattended for roughly 2 years. What is the optimal way of dealing with this problem?

Should I just cut them and soak with diesel(not burn), drill and fill with potassium nitratr or other chemicals? I went to a couple shops and they only recommended glyphosate(which I would rather avoid) and phosphorus.

Thank you,

Vincent Renaud
https://www.pawpawlist.com/pawpaw-producers/vincent-renaud

Look, the European honey bees came over and colonized America from the savage native bees. They civilized this nation around the principle of migratory beekeeping and pollination services under God. The gears of capitalism are greased with the hemolymph of native bees. If you don't like it, don't eat fruit or vegetables because they weren't pollinated by native bees. They were pollinated by America's bees, the European honey bee.