7 months on, Slowly but Surely

Today, 07.02.2010, is exactly 7 months since I started switching on the sound to my swiftlet sanctuary. When I entered the sanctuary this morning, to my surprise there is a nest base at the corner of the nesting planks on the 3rd. Floor. In my earlier post, I had reported that I discovered a nest base but that was a false alarm as the base did not show any progress but this time it is for real. The past 3 months had been the month of slow growth everywhere where very few swiftlets were seen in the sky and even in the birdhouses. I just visited a birdhouse in Hulu Besut and the owners had been complaining about the slow progress for the past months but to their surprise when they visited the birdhouse yesterday after 2 weeks being away, there were 5 new nest bases. This shows that the breeding season is on and more nests and babies are on the way. In my sanctuary, I discovered a lot of bird shits on the 2nd and 3rd Floor, mostly below the tweeters, but so far only 1 nest base above the bird shit. I am positive that more nests will come with the breeding season already started. Most of the bird shits are on the 3rd Floor which is the brightest of the the 3 Floors. This would just dispel the myth that swiftlets like to stay in dark places.

1st. nest base at corner and besides tweeter

Bird shits above tweeter

Bird shits above tweeter

Bird shits above tweeter

Bird shits above tweeter

Bird shits above tweeter

1st. nest base

After more than 3 weeks not going into the sanctuary, I went in yesterday and to my surprise there is already a nest base on the 3rd. floor and quite a number of bird shit spots on the 3rd floor and 2nd. Floor. 1 bird was on the the 2nd Floor when I went in at about 11.25 a.m. However, it flew out. It has been about 5 months since the sound was played in this sanctuary. Earlier on, it seems as if the birds are scared to come in due to the cave-like shape of the entrance and roving room which the birds are not familiar with. However with some modifications to the tweeters and opening of another entrance hole, it seems to be performing better now. At least the birds had started to make nest with one nest base observed on the 3rd . floor.

New entrance opening

1st, nest base on the 3rd. Floor

Bird shits

Bird shits

Bird shits

Bird shits

Bird shits

Bird shits

Bird shits