Last weekend I was in S.P to check out and do some maintenance works of a farm that I had JV. .I received a call in the late evening from my partner who is impatiently asking when I will be coming to S.P to check the progress our JV farm. He insisted I come the next day.
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I was very busy and had postponed the trip few times before. I told him that I have to check whether there is flight ticket available. I booked the ticket the minute I put down my phone luckily there is ticket available. I have to clear all my other works as I'm going for few days.
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That night I went to bed at 3am and get up at 6.30am to catch a flight. I was in a rush I've forgotten to bring along my camera. This was the first time I travel without my digital camera. Quite uneasy for me as without the camera I can't take pictures and do video recording. As most know I love to post pictures in my blog. Never mind.....
The past few months’ weather in the North was very hot and dry. It hasn't rain for few months. It was very dry and many Swiftlets traveled far for food and to places that are wet. Some may have stayed at the wet area making it their permanent home. The sky was clear temp raising reaching 37c I could hardly see birds flying in the sky. At this Prime Bird Zone area usually there are at least few hundred of birds at any hour of the day but during this time to find few is not easy.
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This has been the phenomena during every dry season especially during the East monsoon from Nov - Feb .
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During my visit the rain came it was the first after many months. I guess I was lucky. My partner hinting to me that I have brought rain to S.P. I was there to check the progress of the farm that I had revamped in Dec-08. Ever since the revamp I advised him not to visit the farm until my next visit. So no one knows how the farm is progressing after the revamp.
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It was a 1 year plus farm with 12 nests. Some of the nests had been abandoned by birds. The nests quality was bad, most have holes and broken. This was due to poor control of micro. The ventilation, temp & humidity were not up the minimum requirement.
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There were many partitioning in the farm which restricted the movement of air and the birds' flying circle.
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I removed the partitions, balanced up the micro. The placement of tweeter was rearranged to create an environment that similar to farm that harvesting many kgs. New good Motorola quality tweeters were installed. It was a total restructuring exercise. From a 3 entrance holes to 1, sealed up all entrance holes except a strategic one. I could see many farms here having more that one entrance hole. It is popular here (S.P) which I do not buy such idea. Perhaps the one who built it could not decide where and which are the most strategic place to put the entrance hole.
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After all are done, 2 bottles of Love Potion were used. The smell was strong and lastly changed the cd sound of the farm. The new sound is from my own remixed collection. That was what I did to the farm that I had revamped last Dec.
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This time when we inspect the farm the nests have increased double fold within 2 months. There were many new nests marking on the planks and many patches of new birds shit. We were happy to see the result. The new nests marking were in the area that has no nests before. It shows that the revamp has changed the micro and birds seemed to like it.
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As usual second round of maintenance job applying Love potion, retune the sound system, etc. Later in the evening at about 7.40pm we went to the back of the farm to observe how many birds actually stay in. We were curiously looking at the entrance hole. There were few hundred of birds circling on top of the farm thank to the earlier rain. The birds had come back.
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The owner was saying how nice if all these birds stay in my farm and I replied lets see. There were few birds entering the farm 1 to 2 at a time most circling above Hex tweeter. Gradually more came from 1 - 2 at a time to 5-10 and keep on increasing. It was outrageous, we lost count it was like bullet 10-20 and increasing. All queuing up by batches squeezing between them hurrying getting into the farm. Within 15 minute estimated 600 birds had entered the farm it could be more. As we look up the sky the birds that flying on top of the farm is getting lesser as most of the birds had entered the farm.
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The owner can't believe what he saw. He keeps on telling me “this is the first time I saw so many enter my farm”. It’s unbelievable. I was frustrated because I didn't bring my camera with me to record it.
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This is a good sign more important is that the 600 birds entered the farm at that hour indicated that they had stayed. If few hundred enter the farm during morning or noon it will not guarantee that they will stay. They may play for few minute or hour then leave.
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I can't describe how happy my partner was. Later we went for dinner and discuss how we should maintain it. Given the high number of birds staying in 2-3 months time there will be lots of nests.
The next day to assure that this is not a just one time coincidence event we decided to do the same to count the birds entering the farm at the same time. Bingo! This time estimated 700-800 birds. He was totally speechless and jaw dropping.
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I'm satisfied that the farm once categorized as failed farm now moving towards success. That is not all. This morning I received a call from my partners reporting to me the same 700-800 birds had entered the farm again making it continuously for few days. So there will many nests in few months time.
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So the farm had been salvaged.
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