I'm forwarding a message that came in over the bluebird listserve.
I'm happy to help him out by collectiong house sparrow eggs!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Matson" <hellokev at gmail.com>
To: "Kevin Matson" <hellokev at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 7:21 AM
Subject: Do you ever find House Sparrow (HOSP) eggs in your Bluebird boxes?


Do you ever find House Sparrow (HOSP) eggs in your Bluebird boxes?

I'm a graduate researcher in the Netherlands starting a project
investigating antibacterial proteins in bird eggs. I'm hoping to
collect small numbers of eggs from species that have a very wide
breeding ranges and HOSPs are a good candidate.

I know HOSPs cause real problems for owners of Bluebird boxes, who are
keen to get rid of these impostors.

*Do you ever find HOSP eggs in your Bluebird boxes, or do you make
sure the birds are never allowed to get as far along as laying?

*How often do you find them, and what do you do with these eggs?

*If you do find HOSP eggs, then perhaps we can help each other out?

I need freshly laid HOSP eggs from across the US and I'm looking for
people who are willing to help collect them for me. All you need to
do is collect two or three fresh HOSP eggs that haven't been incubated
and freeze them immediately.

My colleagues and I will arrange pick-up / delivery of eggs. This is
University-sponsored research and (while we understand HOSPs are not
afforded and Federal protection) please help us abide by any state and
local laws. We will either analyze the samples in the lab of a US
colleague or secure permission to bring frozen samples back to NL.

Can you help? I'm keen to hear any suggestions and advice. Please
contact me or Nick Horrocks (n.p.c.horrocks at rug.nl)

Animal Ecology
Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies
University of Groningen
P.O. Box 14
9750 AA Haren
The Netherlands