Tag Archives: bird trap

Victory!

by Jennette,

Finally, I’ve been able to sleep this week. Or when I didn’t, it wasn’t because of noisy birds. The sparrow trap did its job. I’m not sure if we caught Mr. Noisy or not, but he stopped hanging out in the space between our house and the neighbors once we set it out–mainly  because he was hitting on the chicks in the trap. I thought we got him Wednesday, but my husband said the male in the trap didn’t sound like Mr. Noisy. After a few days of that, we stopped putting the trap out, and he seems to have stayed away. I think I heard him a street over while walking the dog–fine with me!

smithsmonthly20What I’ve been reading: Smith’s Monthly #20 by Dean Wesley Smith. This was a short one for me, as the novel in it was one I’d already read in serial form, so I skipped it. But the stories were good as always. It amazes me how he writes this much every month, usually all the stories to fill the magazine plus a novel. And that’s usually not all he writes. He does this on top of being the CFO of a publishing company and owning that plus three retail stores. All this at the age most people think of retirement! His blog is a great learning resource for any writer.

ROW80Logo175ROW80 Update: I’ve had a couple other victories–one is that Time’s Dilemma released this week! If you’ve thought about giving the Saturn Society a try, this is a great one to start with. My publisher decided to call it Book 3, because some of the events overlap with Book 2 and Time’s Best Friend, which they are now calling Book 4, so I guess that makes sense. But this one is not only standalone, it’s about 1/3 the length of the other Saturn Society novels, so not as big a time commitment to try it out. It’s on sale at all retailers for $0.99 through July 7th, and you can get it for $1.00 on Smashwords throughout July. More info and buy links are here.

My other victory is that I got more done on my next WIP than I expected–definitely a win! Which brings us to ROW80. Monday begins Round 3. My primary goal for that is to finish the rough draft of this WIP, which will be Saturn Society Book 5 and returns to Tony and Violet, the characters featured in Book 1 and 2. I have Book 5 about half-written, but finishing will be no easy task, as what I have is a mess. So I’m going back through and fixing what’s there. I’ve gone through 11 scenes so far, and would like to go through another ten this week (yes, this is going to be another long one).

What about you–have you had any victories lately, whether big or small? What have you been reading? If you’re doing ROW80, what are your main goals for the Round? Or heck, even if you’re not participating, what kind of goals are you working toward, whether writing-related or not? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.

This Means War

by Jennette,

This has been a good week for me, but a tired one. Not because I’ve had more to do than usual, but because I’ve not gotten enough sleep. And the number one thing to do to treat Adrenal Fatigue is–duh!–get a decent amount of sleep. This is tougher for us than for people with normal, healthy adrenal function, because part of our problem is that we don’t make enough cortisol–and what we do get, comes later in the day than for most people.

That means we’re really, really not morning people. Going to bed early doesn’t help, because we can’t go to sleep early. I also can’t take naps.

So earlier this spring, when the sparrows started congregating near my bedroom window, it became a problem when they’d wake me up at the crack of dawn.

I put some bird spikes on the wires close to the house, and that kept them off of those. But they were still partying in the tree. So I put a plastic owl up beside the bushes beneath my window, and that scared them all away.

Well,  all except for one tenacious, male sparrow. Of course, this little cretin has the loudest, most obnoxious chirp of them all. And once he sits somewhere and gets going, he Never. Shuts. Up.

He even wakes my husband up. “God, I’m going to shoot that thing,” DH said after a week of this. He borrowed a pellet gun from a friend and almost got him once, but otherwise, Mr. Noisy has been elusive.

I tried a different route: a sparrow trap. I found this link with instructions on how to make my own. The hardware mesh cost me about $10 – much less than buying one!

I also read up on sparrows. Turns out gardeners and birders alike really hate these little pests. The House Sparrow (a.k.a. HOSP) is a non-native, invasive species that competes with native bluebirds and purple martins for nest space. Not only are bluebirds and martins appealing to the birders, gardeners love them because they are insectivores.

A Bird Party! All sparrows welcome.

A Bird Party! All sparrows welcome.

Sparrows, OTOH, eat stuff from gardens. And they are the Russian Mafia of birds: if someone’s living in a house they want, they’ll take it by whatever means necessary. They don’t just run off the other birds, they kill them and destroy their eggs.

Which explains why I never see them in my neighborhood, even though they’re indigenous to this area. The place is overrun with sparrows. Both the federal government and all 50 states consider sparrows a nuisance animal (along with pigeons, starlings, coyotes, feral hogs, and Asian carp).

I made my trap and set it out last night with some nice, fluffy bread and a cup of water. In the morning, there were five sparrows inside! Unfortunately, not Mr. Noisy. But now we’re at war. Between my trap and DH’s pellet gun, we should be able to get some decent sleep soon.

What I’ve been reading: I beta-read a science fiction novel for a writer friend and enjoyed it very much. I’ll share more about it once it’s released.

ROW80Logo175ROW80 Update: My main goal for this week was to begin working on my next WIP, which is already half-written, but is a mess. I’ve gone through and fixed three scenes, which was what I hoped to get done. This week, I want to go through five. ROW80 Round Two ended this past Thursday, so it’s also time for a recap on quarterly goals.

My main objective was to do everything I needed to get Time’s Dilemma ready for publication. It releases Tuesday and is already up for preorder, so that’s a goal accomplished! I also wanted to start work on the next WIP, that’s done too (barely).

ROW80 Round Three officially starts on July 4th, so I’ll be back on the 3rd with Third Quarter goals.

What about you–what problem have you tackled lately? Did you know those cute, little sparrows were an introduced species, and a nuisance? How are you doing on whatever goals you might have, whether writing or otherwise? Please share in the comments–I’d love to hear from you!

Jennette Marie Powell writes stories about ordinary people in ordinary places, who do extraordinary things and learn that those ordinary places are anything but. In her Saturn Society novels, unwilling time travelers do what they must to make things right... and change more than they expect. You can find her books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and more.