a new beginning for martins in Milwaukee County

***********************************

******************

Thanks to the efforts of Bill Holton and his wife Jill, and Diane Lembck, (all three of the Wisconsin Metro Audubon Society), with a little help from Dr. Paul Hunter and yours truly, there is fantastic new martin house and gourd setup at Grobschmidt Park on the south side of Milwaukee County. Metro Audubon bought the new house, pole setup, and gourds. Bill Holton facilitated the rest, providing skill and tools. Paul and I were part of the crew. This is an extremely well-constructed example of housing for Purple Martins. In one of the photos above you'll see Bill holding the old house that this unit replaces. Kudos to everyone involved; you folks really have class, and this installation is classy, too. Thanks for letting me join you!

Housing for martins needed in Milwaukee County

********************************The Purple Martin is in decline in Wisconsin; see the graphed breeding bird survey results above. You can help: Housing for martins is needed in southeastern WI! If you have unused martin housing and you'd be willing to donate it to our effort, contact me at iltlawas@earthlink.net, or 414-698-9108.

support the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin

***************************************

If you're not already familiar with BRAW, learn more about them and their efforts to increase bluebird populations, and those of other native cavity-nesting birds. See their website at http://www.braw.org/

agriculture and birds

Learn about the links betwen agricultural practices and changing bird populations. A brief overview is here at National Audubon's website, and a paper from the Journal of Applied Ecology is given here as a pdf. Yet another paper from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is linked here. Penn State's website has this article. Not all of these are recent papers, but they provide a set of introductory concepts and research results. Click on the Penn State ag magazine to find pdfs to previous articles. An NRCS paper is available here.

Please help us build PUMA numbers in Milwaukee County this year!

We're getting started with a new initiative to increase the Purple Martin population in Milwaukee County parks this year - please help us! We need help with finding and monitoring existing colonies, and enhancing those, plus setting up additional housing in other, new locations. We need volunteer help and donations to purchase housing, gourds, and poles - we'll also gladly accept used martin houses/poles/gourds in good condition.

Write to me for more information:

William P. Mueller
MCAMMP Project Coordinator
Conservation Chair, Wisconsin Society for Ornithology
(414) 698-9108 [cell]
E-mail: iltlawas@earthlink.net
On the web: http://home.earthlink.net/~iltlawas/index.html
Blog: http://bluebirdslaugh.blogspot.com/