2007 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="id219.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Colony 2004"><U>My Colony 2004</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id220.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Colony 2005"><U>My Colony 2005</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id243.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Colony 2006"><U>My Colony 2006</U></A>   |   <B>2007 Colony</B>   |   <A HREF="id258.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="2008 Colony"><U>2008 Colony</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id257.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Airgun targets"><U>Airgun targets</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>2007 Colony</B></I></div> <div> <B>Here are some videos and pictures of my 2007 colony. </B><B> </B><B>My final numbers for this year are both good and bad. As most of you already know, I went from 9 pair last year to 43 pair this year so I increased my pair count by 34, which I think is a 477.78% increase in nesting pairs. Shocked is just not enough of a word to describe my and Linda's feelings. I had 199 eggs laid for an average of 4.6 eggs per nest. I had 13 unhatched eggs for a hatch rate of 93.47%. I found 3 dead nestlings, 1 in a gourd, 1 on the ground, and 1 that had jumped and one of my dog got it before I did. So, I had a fledge rate of 98.39% of those that hatched. Also, I had 5 more jumpers that Linda and I feed and fledged. I am counting them as making it since I never found any bodies around, plus we fledged them when other nests were fledging.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>As I was hoping for 25 pair this year, I am absolutely flabergasted at the increase to 43 pairs at my site.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>As soon as I quit have visitors, I plan on removing all round holes (about 20 out of 100 gourds) now that my colony is firmly established. Also, since I finally had Martins nest in white gourds, as well as plastic gourds, I will be reducing my brown gourds by at least 50%, maybe more. However, each gourd rack will always maintain at least 2 brown gourds in honor of my recently deceased father who gave me the idea of forgetting what the experts say and erecting a brown gourd. I told him no way. Then, I got to thinking that after all these years, what could it hurt. So, I added a couple, and all my visitors the next year only paid attention only to the brown gourds. The next year, I went to about 50/50 brown versus white. This year, in my 4th year as a landlord, is the first year I had Martins nest in white gourds or plastic gourds, so now that I am firmly established, I will reduce the number of brown gourds until I have only two per rack.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B> <a href="HTMLobj-3806/Martins_Flying.avi" target="_blank"><u>Martins_Flying.avi</u></a>  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <a href="HTMLobj-3808/Martins_2007.avi" target="_blank"><u>Martins_2007.avi</u></a>  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Here is a video of some of my colony looking for and chasing a hawk.  The video was taken from 300 to 400 yards away.</B></div> <div> <B> <a href="HTMLobj-3827/Looking_for_and_chasing_hawk_1.wmv" target="_blank"><u>Looking_for_and_chasing_hawk_1.wmv</u></a>  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Martins hanging out before dark</B></div> <div> <B> <a href="HTMLobj-3828/Hanging_out.wmv" target="_blank"><u>Hanging_out.wmv</u></a>  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="ee2f49b0.jpg" border=0 width="500" height="667" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="ee4bc0d0.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="525" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="ee6bc0d0.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="525" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="ee8bc0d0.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="525" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="eeabc0d0.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="525" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="eecbc0d0.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="525" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="ef2bc0d0.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="525" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="ef0bc0d0.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="525" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Some of the birds patiently, or impatiently, waiting for me to finish a nest check on May 27, 2007</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="ef6bc0d0.jpg" border=0 width="700" height="525" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B>Three of six jumpers I had this year.  The three, plus two more, were taken care of by my wife and myself.  We hand fed them and carried them out every day so they could interact with the colony.  Also, they were carried in such a way that if they decided it was time to go and fledge to be with the colony, they could.  All five were fledged successfully.  Fortunately, they left us on days when other nests were fledging so we believe and hope they made it.  I haven't found any bodies in the yard or around anywhere else, so we would like to believe they made it.  They ate 50 to 75 crickets a day while they were with us.  Since I keep good records on my nesting cavities, I probably could have returned them to their nest, but at the time, I had so many nest that were so close to fledging, I would probably would have had even more jumpers, so I decided not to go that route.  Sometimes, one must think of the many versus the few.  Unfortunately for the sixth jumper, one of my dogs got to it before I did.  Its spine was broken by the time I got it away from my dog.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id243.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="My Colony 2006"><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> </td> </tr></table></body>