H, I messed up and placed some housemartin next boxes 10-12m up on a very exposed south-facing wall. Yesterday a pair of house sparrows appear to have moved in, do these have any hope of having a successful brood in a south-facing box in the current hot weather?
I'll move the boxes in autumn, kicking myself for not thinking about the direction, I just placed them on a wall that the housemartins nested on last year to try and help them out (nest with eggs dried out and fell down last year).
Thanks
Re the current situation, sparrows are struggling to breed here this year. Heat and lack of rain could be factors. The only nest with chicks in are in dense hedge. Think you will need a change in weather for sparrow nestlings to survive south facing. However..........sparrows regularly take over martin nests. Much of the time, they then don't bother to breed in them. Don't be surprised if they muck about for a few days then not bother. In addition, sparrows also bring down natural martin nests. If you had sparrows last year, I would suggest that is what happened. Once there is conflict, I have found it very difficult/impossible to stop it. I tried feeding back negatively re encouraging people to get Martin and swift nests where sparrows occur, but got nowhere. Wherever you site the artificial nest, don't be surprised if you again end up with sparrows.