School project update...

[RB73]

I'm sad to say that with the last day of school coming tomorrow, we have had no luck attracting any martins to our site. I have seen Martins in the sky (albeit in fewer number than years past), and had 2 pair do a fly by a couple weeks ago, but have not yet seen any land on our set up.
Kids enjoyed the project, but only hands on experience this year was tearing out sparrow nest. Trapping proved to be frustrating and difficult, but finally cleared out a pair of sparrows for several days only to be overrun by multiple sparrows again this week. I just turned the nest boxes backward two days ago because there I wasn't able to keep up with them. The 4 gourds underneath the house are still open. The sparrows have shown no interest in these, and if they do I'm hoping the Troyer gourd trap will work a little better for me than the T14 trap.
Although schools out, I'll still try to attract some late season martins in hopes of getting this colony started for future classes at the school.

[tonyg]

I'm sure the frustration of trying to attract martins in the city limits are bad..do you have open flyways to the housing and not tree encroached? Definitely not to late to get an Sy pair to start ..just b relentless on the sparrows and starlings , or it will be even tougher to attract them..good luck and play the dawn song in the early morning hours..

[DornCounty]

hang in there RB... there are still a couple weeks left with a chance of getting some.. even without the kids there getting a foot hold would be great.

Not to discourage you, but I've trapped over 200 sparrows out of the colony in town this season.. and it's like I haven't been trapping at all. The last week of warm weather really ramped things up. I have come to the conclusion sparrow trapping will just be part of the job.

[RB73]

The house is completely open on 3 sides and has trees about 40 or so feet away on the 4th side. We have great equipment, including decoys and dawnsong. We have small established colony to feed off of less than a mile away. We don't have a lot of water around, but the Kansas river and a decent size pond are about 1-2 miles away.

Dorn, are you trapping from the Lonestar houses? What trap are you using inside the houses at your sites?

Thanks, RB

[DornCounty]

The house is completely open on 3 sides and has trees about 40 or so feet away on the 4th side. We have great equipment, including decoys and dawnsong. We have small established colony to feed off of less than a mile away. We don't have a lot of water around, but the Kansas river and a decent size pond are about 1-2 miles away.

Dorn, are you trapping from the Lonestar houses? What trap are you using inside the houses at your sites?

Thanks, RB

Just put a lonestar up.. have not trapped in it yet, but I noticed a sparrow on it at lunch... so I will.. Mainly Trio's with Spar-o-doors. I will be building a repeating nest box trap that will attach to a trio house this offseason. it will have a detachable magazine so I can quickly reset it and dispatch of the sparrows later. if they work I will have them on duty all year round.

[GeneP]

What school in Lawrence? I'm in town between Haskell and Harper off 19th street.

[RB73]

Gene, the setup is at Hillcrest, just southeast of 9th and Iowa.

Dorn, let's me know how the trapping works for you. I'm open to building or trying new things although our budget is limited. I did build a small house with gourd trap mounted to the inside of the entrance. I filled it with feathers and nest material and attached it to a fence 7 ft from the Martin pole, but it hasn't generated any interest from the sparrows.

[GeneP]

Thanks RB, I'll probably swing by and take a look. If I can get through all the construction work