[Bluebird-babble] HOSP control in CO?

[Christina.Mitchell at UCHSC.edu]

Hi, all--
 
HOSP is bird-banding code for House Sparrow.
 
I have no direct experience with House Sparrows and  Colorado DOW.  But I found this on the DOW website.  (I added italics and underlined what might be the crucial part.)
 
Colorado Revised Statutes 33-6-107(9) <http://198.187.128.12/colorado/lpext.dll?f=templates&fn=fs-main.htm&2.0>  Licensing violations - penalties states: " For the purposes of this section, any person, any member of such person's family, or any employee of the person may hunt, trap, or take black-billed magpies, common crows, starlings, English or house sparrows, common pigeons, coyotes, bobcats, red foxes, raccoons, jackrabbits, badgers, marmots, prairie dogs, pocket gophers, Richardson's ground squirrels, rock squirrels, thirteen-lined ground squirrels, porcupines, crayfish, tiger salamanders, muskrats, beavers, exotic wildlife, and common snapping turtles on lands owned or leased by the person without securing licenses to do so, but only when such wildlife is causing damage to crops, real or personal property, or livestock. Any person may kill skunks or rattlesnakes when necessary to protect life or property."
 
This sounds as though one cannot trap House Sparrows unless they are damaging property (defined broadly, but probably not including bluebirds on one's property).  This is interesting, because I too knew that they weren't covered by the Migratory Bird Act.  (For example, I volunteer at a wildlilfe rehab sanctuary and House Sparrows, European Starlings, and Rock Pigeons are all outside of DOW oversight because of the MBA.  But does the above statement mean that crows and magpies aren't covered under the MBA also?  Guess I should read that legislation someday.)  But perhaps hunting (again, defined broadly) falls to state control--and since these 3 birds aren't protected by the MBA, the state can make its own rules about them.  I think relocating of wildlife (e.g., trapping and releasing elsewhere) has its own set of regs and licenses, but I didn't check into it that far.
 
Anybody have any real-world experience with this?  It can of course be a bit tricky extracting de-contextualized info from a website...
 
Tina Mitchell

________________________________

From: bluebird-babble-bounces at denveraudubon.org on behalf of Lisa Crispin
Sent: Mon 6/4/2007 7:02 PM
To: Listserv of the Colorado Bluebird Project
Subject: Re: [Bluebird-babble] HOSP control in CO?


Sorry to be especially ignorant, but what is HOSP?


On 6/4/07, Cynthia Stengel <cynstengel at yahoo.com> wrote: 

	Hello,
	I live 10 miles SE of Durango in southwest CO.  I have a small bluebird 
	trail (5 boxes).  Currently chickadees are nesting in one, and 
	mountain bluebirds in another (yeah!).  I had tree swallows 
	nesting in one of the other boxes, but it was driven out by 
	HOSP.  (Another box also has Trees very interested.)
	 I called our local Division of Wildlife to ask if it 
	was legal to trap HOSP in Colorado and was told it was only 
	legal if the bird was "damaging crops, real or personal 
	property, or livestock".  The person specifically said that if 
	they were driving birds out of nest boxes that this "was nature" 
	and it was not legal to trap them for that alone.  Sigh.  
	The person also seemed to be saying that removing the nest 
	material and other passive controls, such as using a sparrow 
	spooker, were also illegal.  Can you clarify for me what
	 is allowed in terms of HOSP control in Colorado (I had this weird feeling that the DOW woman didn't know the kind of bird I was talking about, hope I am wrong, she kept saying HOSP was protected by the International Migratory Bird Act---while I kept saying they weren't...) and what your experience has been with CO DOW rules?  I have not let the bird nest, and will not even if I have to take down the box.  Thanks for any info you 
	can give me.  I'm new to this list and to bluebird box monitoring, but have been an avid birder for a zillion years. Great to have this resource! 
	Thanks so much.
	Cynthia in Durango
	 

	
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-- 
Lisa Crispin
Co-author, 
Testing Extreme Programming
http://lisa.crispin.home.att.net <http://lisa.crispin.home.att.net/>  
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