Ks nest check update..6/23/13

[tonyg]

468 nestlings, 19 eggs left..102 nesting pairs..all nestlings look healthy and nesting chambers are free of mites..3 gourds will be fledging probably around next weeks check..life is good so far at the Garretson Martin Colony site!! (oh, saved a baby Martin today also, placed him with nestlings his age).

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

Tony, you are having a great season. This doesn't happen automatically. You manage your colony in a proper manner and are now seeing the results of your efforts.

Tim

[DebA]

That's a lot of babies! When are you going to band? Mapquest puts us 180 miles apart. Shorter by way of the bird flying. I would like to get some of your SY's. Then mine can go west to Holcomb to Art. Don't know if yours would ever come this way but wouldn't that be something?
Deb

[Rick Meyer]

Not so fast there DebA............I'm only 75 miles to the Northeast of Olpe, and I'd like some of those birds as well.

[DornCounty]

I'll be sending out 80 birds this year and my hotel is full, so they will have to go somewhere. Parsons public colonies will be sending out about 150 babies, but will probably suck in that many adults next season. so that's a draw.

[Matt F.]

Tony, you are having a great season. This doesn't happen automatically. You manage your colony in a proper manner and are now seeing the results of your efforts.

I'll second that!
Great work, and great report Tony!

[DebA]

Ok Rick you can have five or ten. Ha! Tony, you and Bev are doing great work to fill up Kansas and Missouri! You too Dorn. 80 babies are a ton also! I hope to fledge at least 45 this year. I would be thrilled with 50!
Deb

[Rick Meyer]

Yes........great work to all of you. Hopefully one day I'll benefit. Just this morning I have a male SY checking things over. It may be too late for this year but it was a thrill for me to just see him. My fingers are crossed!

[tonyg]

Thanks all..
Tim I'm pulling for you to get your colony started again. Your posts were some of the ones I learned a few things about martins when I first joined the forum. The martins NEED to find you!!! Your a great landlord!!

Good job Andrew and Deb, the more succesfull Ks landlords the better for those like Rick wanting to start his colony.

And Rick, all it takes is that first pair to succeed in your housing and you'll be off and running..and keep up that fight against the S&S, one of the most important keys to becoming a landlord...good luck...

[KathyF]

Great job, Tony! You have to have a lot of energy to do that many nest checks and track that many kiddos!



Sounds like all the midwest landlords are having a banner year! Woot!

[art]

I am starting to feel a bit guilty about having lured martins to my place with this miserable heat and all. Historically they never nested in this once treeless region. After three years of much effort I have four active pairs and I am excited. However I imagine conditions in the apartments must be extreme. One brood are about to fledge and I am cautious about lowering the T-14 and have them bail out. Have not attempted the ice pack treatment. Don't know what sort of misting system people are talking about. The sparrows are getting more bothersome and I can't seem to hit them with the air rifle due my eyesight. Hope my martins are dealing with all of this better than I.

[DebA]

Hi Art -
I have some that are about to fledge too. I have new housing and commercial gourds so I am unsure how they do in the heat. I don't have ventilation doors for my Trendsetter. However besides the entrance there is a vent hole in the back part of the compartment and it must be working. Plus they are white and have insulation. I was pleased with temp inside the house.

However, I lowered my house and put in ice packs so they DON'T jump. I don't put under the nest material (although that is recommended by smarter martineers than me). My nests are like a fortress with mud etc... I put the ice pack in the back part of the entry side...so not in the nest bowl. In my super gourds I put it just inside the screw off cover which is next to the entrance.

Are they wary with something in their nest? Yes. But they have great courage and my experience is they will go in. I am home now but before I worked about 9 miles away. I would go home between noon and 1:30 and place a pack. I would get home by 530 and replace. The babies were used to it and would all be lined up on the cool pack.

I misted the past two years. So far I haven't this year. We set up a simple mister head thingy onto a small water line that went into a male garden hose end. So I could just flip on the hydrant. If you were fancy you could put it on a watering timer thingy. Here is my old house...




The mister head is loosely wired there in a break in the plastic roof. I would point the mister to spray the roof. Water would trickle down over the front porch ledge. Mom and Pop sat out there under and didn't mind flying through. Here is another closer look at the mister tip...although my zoom is blurry...



It is inexpensive to rig. It seemed to really help the overall coolness of the house.

Here is how much my martins enjoy bathing...


NOT! That is the house bird, Polly, the center of it all.

NOW...can ice packing and misting lead to problems? Sure. Moisture is the main one. If the nests get wet well they can tend to have more mites, and also you have to worry about aspergillus, triggelosis, pertussis...heck I don't know...some kind of Osis. Fungus that can be harmful. My entrance way did get damp. But my birds fledged. Sometimes you have to choose your lesser evil so to speak.

Bottom line. DON'T feel bad for "luring" them here!!!!!!! Thank goodness you did and you give a care! Oh yeah. Mine seem fine in temps to 103ish. IN 2011 we were having those 108 to 114 days remember? Remember when 98 felt cool? My birds didn't jump and they fledged. I suspect that the Amazon rain forest in Brazil gets hot too.

Deb