[DippyBlonder]

I've read these forums quite a lot this week but didn't have time to join. I really wanted to thank a lot of people here as the information I found helped me with what to do and more importantly what NOT to do.

So, heck, where to begin, it’s been such a week! We have a sparrows nest outside our kitchen window, in the garage roof. A month ago we watched
the birds build it, we heard the first tweeting about a fortnight ago then we noticed that the male bird had disappeared :-(

Saturday before last I was pleased, we saw a male sparrow come back...
until we noticed that he came out of the nest with a beak full of feathers and the girl was trying to fight him off and he was attacking her. I hit the internet and found this site and others and learned that boy sparrows will take over an unprotected nest and kill any babies inside. This was obviously NOT the father sparrow.

Of course I will have no murder and/or pillaging in my garden lol!

Their routine is from 5.15ish am until 9.15ish pm so I’ve been sat guarding this nest from 4.30am until 10pm for the last 9 days.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday I spent mostly in ‘the tent’ (two chairs with a blanket over about 10 feet away from the nest). The routine was good,
she (Mrs Jibson) would fly in and land on the gutter, look at me (she could see my face only) then go in the nest, he (the Baaarstard) would fly
to the gutter straight after, I would squirt him with the hose gun and he would fly off, she would come out and go and get more food. She was
feeding roughly once every 1-2 minutes so 16 hours a day of this was exhausting. The tent was cramped, wet and smelly. I took breaks where I
sat on the patio for 20 minutes (about 12 feet away) but whenever I did that she wouldn’t come in to feed.

Tuesday afternoon we had our first breakthrough, she actually came in to feed whilst I was on the patio… and he didn’t chase her or land near the
nest because he was scared of me. So Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday was really easy, she was in and out of that nest hassle free whilst he sat in
various places around the garden shouting lol! The closest he could get was about 30 feet.

Wednesday night she didn’t sleep in the nest. And I was crapping myself that he had got her whilst she was off somewhere, but she did turn up
again at 5.20am on Thursday morning :-D

Thursday was difficult, as she was coming into the nest, he was dive bombing her and doing a fly past the nest as she was trying to get in.
That’s when the BB gun came out. I’d worked out all of his ‘usual spots’ around the garden and set about hassling him. If he landed on the garage
roof I could shoot the roof and the noise of the ball would rattle down the roof and scare him off. The same with the fences, the house roof and
the trampoline.

Thursday night she didn’t sleep in the nest again.

Friday was easy. I sat there hassling him and she wasn’t bothered by me or my shooting at all, the closest he was getting was about 50 feet (my BB
gun range!) and she was in and out of that nest loads :-D

Friday night she didn’t sleep in the nest again. I’ve no idea where she was going at night. Maybe this is normal when the babies can regulate
their own heat or maybe it’s due to all of the hassles she is getting. I couldn’t find anything on the internet.

Saturday morning, 7.20am I became the proud parent of a baby girl! :-D :-D :-D She flew straight out of the nest to the hedge on the other side of
the garden. I ran to the middle of the garden so I could cover both her and the nest. Mrs Jibson flew straight to her and the Baaarstard
immediately tried to get into the nest. There was a few frantic minutes of me running back and forth but I realized that he wasn’t interested in
Mrs Jibson or the baby girl and was only interested in the nest.

The Baaarstard was relentless after that. He was actually trying to fly over and crap on me. He was flying back and forth and making a lot of
noise. So I had the BB gun in one hand the the water gun in the other and I was running around like a looney trying to hassle him a lot so the other
baby could come out. I wouldn’t even let him land anywhere.

I could hear Mrs Jibson and baby girl in the field at the bottom of the garden so I knew she was OK and we developed a new routine. She would be
with the baby girl and I’d chase him round the garden for half an hour, then I’d take up my position back on the patio and she would spend half an
hour feeding the last baby boy in the nest. (I can recognize the tweets now so I knew it was a boy left in there).

Baby boy didn’t come out and Mrs Jibson didn’t sleep in the nest again Saturday night.

Sunday morning the Baaarstard was back really early (about 4.45am) and Mrs Jibson didn’t come back until gone 6.00am. We continued our routine but I
was getting worried at this point that baby boy had been injured (when the Baaarstard got in the nest 9 days ago when I realized what was going on) –
the male birds apparently peck their eyes out so they die. I was also worried that if it did come out I wouldn’t know which boy I should be
squirting!!

Anyway, after she has spent her half hour feeding in the nest she sat on the hedge on the other side of the garden and started shouting. At 8.10am
baby boy came out and was sat balancing on the gutter, he is gorgeous, the fattest ball of feathers you ever did see. The Baaarstard flew in and I
got the luckiest shot I’ve had all week, I absolutely drenched him with the water gun to the point that he fell to the grass, recovered then flew
off right to the end of the garden (about 100 feet away). Baby boy flew to the hedge (in slow motion with feathers and grass flying off of him
lol!) and then both Mrs Jibson AND baby girl flew to baby boy. It was the sweetest thing you’ve ever seen ever ever ever!!

They dropped off of the hedge into the garden next door. And I went over to the hedge so if the Baaarstard did try and get them at least I had a 50
foot range to try and protect them. But he wasn’t interested in them, only the nest so I let him have it.

I spent most of Sunday (yesterday) outside (out of habit more than anything else lol). I could hear Mrs Jibson and babies for a couple of hours getting further and further away and they haven’t come back (and I don’t expect them to). They went off into the direction of the fields, I know they are going to be OK.

The Baaarstard has been renamed – Billy. He spent most of Sunday ‘redecorating’. By Sunday evening he was sat on the gutter outside ‘his’
nest tweeting… and no one was coming… Billy No Mates lol!

We worked out that I spent about 165 hours sat outside this nest lol! The house looks like a bomb has hit it (I live with my husband and 2 boys!) there is no food in the house and even my aches have aches. But it was all worth it!