I would say that it is very rare to hear a BH with 700 nests within 12 months in Peninsular Malaysia.
Yesterday morning I was given not only a tour inside this special BH but the co-owner came to pick me up in Kuantan and drove me about 1 1/2 hours just for the purpose.
I was very honored and I took some time to digest what is so special with this BH.
These were my observations:
1) Externally you can see that the walls were with no round pipe openings. The owner prefer to use those flowered bricks laid in a row of about 4 feet long covered with those wire mesh to prevent entrance of those small birds into those openings. The walls were of two layered.
2) The surrounding were mainly secondary jungles with some palm oil trees in the distance.
3) There was no water pond our sources but the owner indicated that not far away there is a river.
4) The top most floor consisted of three parts. Somewhere in the middle there is this dog house used to bring those swiftlet into the BH. The second thing was the roofing area preventing the heat from direct shinning onto the cement roof. The other side of the dog kennel there is a water pool (according to the owner).
5) The most outstanding design criteria taken was to create two entrance holes on the walls of the dog kennel hut. One was facing the east and the other north and the south. The dog kennel was divided into two separate entrance holes areas with a brick wall in the middle (inside). The owner was very proud of this design since during monsoon season the his tenant can enter from the opposite hole that have less interference from those monsoon wind.
6) Internally the three stories building was nothing different from other BH I have visited. Once clear mistake was the location of the LAL. The two were not aligned to give highest chance for the birds to fly to the lowest floor directly.
7) The owner opt for those cluster tweeters. No other tweeters on the nesting planks but cluster tweeters, mounted on those stainless steel square frame.
8) The birds seems to be building their nests only around or close to these cluster tweeters. Those corners with no tweeters seems to be deserted. If I were the owner I will quickly install additional tweeters on every corners that are empty for many months.
9) Coincidentally there was a VIP room on the top most floor just below the roof pond. This room was full of birds during my short inspection. The owner was fascinated with my blog about VIP room. This was the main reason why he took the phone and called me. "Pak Harry you are right. The VIP room is extremely attractive to these birds. I fully agree with you idea to make sure that every floor must have at least one VIP room."
10) The lowest floor used to be empty, according to the co-owner. However he did installed one blue colored bulb and running on 24 hours. Ever since the installation the number of birds coming to the lowest floor increases (this was based on the owner).
11) The owner have a similar background like mine and he seems to be very active in coming out with some gadgets that helps in improving his BH nest population increase. Some seem to be in line with those offshore specifications.
12) One interesting modification that he did was to his chicken coop humidifiers. He removed the plastic fan on the top and cut of the plastic holder of the fan in total. He then open the base of the humidifier and insert a 304 stainless steel fan. (See the pictures). It seem that the fan generate a smaller sized water particle similar to those produced by soundless humidifiers.
Contact Pak Harry at 017 755 1318 if you wish to be his neighbor.
No comments:
Post a Comment