After starting his career in the 1960′s with numerous research labs and State Departments, Lee Martin came back to Fresno and started Bluebird Enterprise in 1977, transforming into Wildlife Control Technologies as it is known today.
- 1977 Nov. started Bluebird Enterprises developing teaching materials, organizing and teaching continuing education seminars to Ag Pest Advisors in CA.
- First big contract was with PGE to deter birds from roosting in substations.
- Developed programs to repel migratory and resident roosting birds from dairies and cattle feed lots.
- Refined and developed efficient use of MAC traps (Modified Australian Crow) for use in trapping passerine species that damage fig & grape crops. Also developed more efficient use of various sound systems by placing units above tree/row height. Units were mounted in a bin box for ease of relocating units each day as birds adjusted their reentry points into the area.
Much of the work listed here was done in cooperation with personnel at the FWS Dixon Field Station which has since become the USGS Western Ecological Research Center.
- Developed bird and rodent management programs in compliance with USDA for stored food products, row, vine & tree crops.
The first experiments to mitigate feces contamination of fresh fruit by cliff swallows (sometimes called mud swallows) were done at the request of USDA inspectors in the Central San Joaquin Valley. After testing various visual/auditory devices it was decided that the entire facility needed to be netted off to keep the tenacious swallows out of the packing plant. It was this work that led to the development of large scale swallow exclusions with netting at many industrial, agricultural, medical, and bridge structures.
- Contracted with US Navy: The base in San Diego needed to deter/repel cormorants from radar tracking towers; in Sunnyvale at Moffet Naval Air Station to eliminate avian ectoparasites from various facilities; in the Pacific North West to deter/repel migratory starlings from roosting in submarine repair stations.
- Contracted with a Marine Naval Air Station in Southern CA: Project resulted in eliminating passerine (especially horned lark) feeding and loafing areas near run ways.
This work led to a contract with UC Davis to write a detailed report on the history of horn lark damage and control programs around the world, with emphasis on practical control programs for growers in Central California.
- Contracted with US Air Force: Project resulted in covering containment basins near run ways at base near Spokane WA.
- Contracted with Air Force Plant 41: Based in Mojave, CA, we developed a humane live trap and relocation program for desert barn owls. (Rockwell, Lockheed, Douglas).
- Contract with Douglas and Lockheed Aircraft: The Southern CA facilities required us to live trap and relocate feral cats that were contaminating aerospace parts.
- Contract with Bechtel Corp: Installed netting systems to exclude migratory waterfowl from cyanide leachate ponding basins used in the precious metal mining industry. The first large scale operation was at Newmont Mine in Nevada.
- Petrochemical Industry: The first major work was for Chevron in Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. Purple martins by the hundreds were roosting in the capacitor banks at the electrical power substation that power the well towers in the lake. White wash (feces) was heavy, slimy/gooey –and it rained every late afternoon causing the insulators to be ineffective and electrical power would jump across and blow-up connections.
- Contract with Petronas: Their oil/gas refinery in southern Malaysia required a bird exclusion for safety. The slimy/gooey feces deposited by hundreds of roosting Jungle Mynas was a major risk. Mynas are a vocal species so we put some in a cage with a cat and recorded their distress cries. The distress calls, live trapping with MAC traps, and intense random strobe lights was effective. Turned out that locals would take the live trapped Mynas and sell them in the market place.