My Colony

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=100 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0418dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>Entrances By Sandy</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>    </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Entrances By Sandy"><U><B>home</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Introduction"><U>Introduction</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Location"><U>Location</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact and Ordering Info"><U>Contact and Ordering Info</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Purple Martin"><U>The Purple Martin</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id261.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Growing Gourds"><U>Growing Gourds</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id178.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Purple Martin Roosts"><U>Purple Martin Roosts</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id242.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Supplemental Feeding"><U>Supplemental Feeding</U></A>   |   <B>My Colony</B>   |   <A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photos By Others"><U>Photos By Others</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Starling Resistant Entrance Solutions"><U>Starling Resistant Entrance Solutions</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id49.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Products By Others"><U>Products By Others</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id156.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Owl Attack"><U>Owl Attack</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id172.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Video Clips"><U>Video Clips</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id145.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Do It Yourself Projects"><U>Do It Yourself Projects</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id217.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Research"><U>Research</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id140.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="In Memoriam"><U>In Memoriam</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id245.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="1969 Camaro"><U>1969 Camaro</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=380 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0418dfc3.jpg"> <div> <I><B>My Colony</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="e4ef49b0.jpg" border=0 width="500" height="667" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>This is my site.  I started it about 1996 with the old Trio house and two smaller gourd racks you see on the left in the back of the picture.  I had plenty of visitors, but for some reason, the females would never stay.  About 2 years later, I built the two racks in the foreground.  Still, plenty of visitors, but the females wouldn't stay.  In 2003, I started offering brown gourds, and got many more visitors.  Finally, in 2004, I had one pair that nested.  After the season was over in 2004, I added the T-14 house and the gourd rack just beyond it. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>***PLEASE NOTE***</B></div> <div> <B>It has been proven that white gourds and housing is cooler, which is a benefit to Purple Martins when it very hot in the summer.  My brown gourds have two 3/4" PVC elbows in the top and extra drainage holes in the bottom.  All this is to increase air flow and make the brown gourds a little cooler.  Once my colony is established and I am sure of site fidelity, I will be painting all my gourds white.  The extra cooling measures have helped, as I have done temperature tests over the last two years, and noticed that the brown gourds are running 1.5 to 2 degrees higher temperatures than the white ones.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="ef8f49b0.jpg" border=0 width="500" height="667" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>After the 2007 season, I added this </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000BF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="id248.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Purple Martin Weathervanes"><U><B>weathervane made by Louis Harper of Kansas</B></U></A></FONT><B>.</B></div> <bR> <div> Click on the links below to see the history of my colony.</div> <div> <A HREF="id219.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Colony 2004"><U><B>2004 Colony</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id220.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Colony 2005"><U><B>2005 Colony</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id243.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Colony 2006"><U><B>2006 Colony</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id249.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="2007 Colony"><U><B>2007 Colony</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id258.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="2008 Colony"><U><B>2008 Colony</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id264.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="2009 Colony"><U><B>2009 Colony</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id242.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Supplemental Feeding"><U><B>Previous Page</B></U></A><B>              </B><A HREF="mailto:sbunn1@suddenlink.net" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:sbunn1@suddenlink.net"><U><B>Contact Me</B></U></A><B>               </B><A HREF="id61.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Photos By Others"><U><B>Next Page</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>