Getting Better!

As of last two weeks, we have around 30 nests and markings. A much better figure than last report of 11 in July and 16 in August. What have we done?
A friend came all the way from Yala to look at our house, Khun Bon helped commenting on our speakers installation, help tuning our internal sounds, brought us two bottles of liquid Ammonia.
My hubby designed and built a motorized ladder to help facilitating the correction of the speakers' positions.
My hubby installed and completed the 3 ventilation fans controlled automatically by a hygrometer controller.
We, my partner and me, agreed to open another opening into the nesting room despite that all our friends against the idea.
My partner couldn't stand my complaint about the low volume of the external sound, he installed two more external speakers outside the BH.
We observed and observed the behavior of birds everyday from morning til dusk and do all the fine tunings as we could think of.

I am not quite sure, which of the correction above is the most effective one or they all worked together in synergy. I can only be very pleased that the no.of birds and nests increased three folds!

Now when I go inside my BH, I can feel and tell that the smell and the sound are much improved than before.

In a way, I am happy that our BH didn't work from the beginning, and thus gave us this opportunity to see that there are so many good friends outside, who are willing to give advises and helping hands. We also learnt a lot about what swiftlets like and dislike by
ourselves. We learnt what type of weather swiftlets will show up. We learnt how they behaved when we changed the position or volume of our speakers.
But one should not solely depends on others for help, we should try our best to help ourselves first.

Current speaker arrangement

worachat: ทางเข้าตัวนอก เป็นเสียงขวาของแอมป์ ตัวบนขวาที่พี่ผมเข้าไปปรับ
แล้วก็เสียงนำสองตัวในโรฟวิ่งกับหน้าเนสติ้งรูเดิม เป็นเสียงซ้าย

worachat: ส่วนทางเข้ารูเล็ก เสียงนำด้านในชั้นสามและทางลงชั้นสอง เป็นแอมป์ตัวซ้ายมือด้านบน

Sent at 12:00 PM on Saturday Aug6, 2011

Faran Controller

เครื่องควบคุมอุปกรณ์ ไฟฟ้า ด้วยค่าอุณหภูมิ หรือ ค่าความชื้น ยี่ห้อ Faran จากประเทศเกาหลี

ท่านที่เคยใช้ หรือกำลังปวดหัวกับคุณภาพของ เครื่องควบคุมคุณภาพต่ำ แต่ราคาสูง จากแหล่งอื่นๆ
ขอแนะนำ เครื่องควบคุม คุณภาพดีเลิศ จาก Faran ประเทศเกาหลี
ชื่อของ Faran เป็นที่ยอมรับกันอยู่แล้ว ว่าคุณภาพเชื่อถือได้
ผู้ที่เคยใช้ เครื่องทำหมอกของ Faran ย่อมรู้ดี



ก คุณสมบัติ เด่น ของเครื่องควบคุมตัวนี้
ก1 หัวเซ็นเซอร์ ที่ทำด้วย หัวทองเหลือง สามารถติดตั้งในบ้านนกได้เลย
ไม่เหมือนหัวเซ็นเซอร์คุณภาพต่ำ ทั่วๆไป ที่มองเห็นวงจร ไอซีอยู่ภายใน เสียหายง่ายมากเมื่อโดนฝุ่นละออง หรือ ความชื้น
จึงต้องหาพลาสติกมาครอบกันขี้นก กันความชื้นเข้า ซึ่งการใช้พลาสติกมาครอบจะทำให้ ค่าที่อ่านเพี้ยนได้
ตัวหัวเซ็นเซอร์ทองเหลืองนี้ ถ้าสกปรกมาก สามารถถอดออกมา ขัดล้าง แล้วใส่กลับไปดังเดิมได้
ก2 ผู้ผลิตแนะนำว่า สามารถต่อสายได้ถึง 30 เมตร โดยไม่ทำให้ค่าเพี้ยน ไม่มีเครื่องควบคุมตัวไหน ที่ผู้ผลิต แนะนำให้ต่อสาย
เกิน 30 เมตร เครื่องคุณภาพต่ำโดยทั่วไป ทางโรงงานจะแนะนำให้ต่อสายได้เพียง 5 เมตร เท่านั้น แต่ผู้แทนจำหน่าย
นำมาแนะนำเกินความเป็นจริง ซึ่งจะมีผลต่อค่าความถูกต้อง และการใช้งานระยะยาว อย่างแน่นอน
ก3 ใช้ควบคุม เครื่องใช้ไฟฟ้า ได้สองชนิด โดยควบคุมด้วยอุณหภูมิ 1 ชนิด (เช่น พัดลม) และควบคุมด้วยค่าความชื้น 1 ชนิด
(เช่น เครื่องทำความชื้น) ใช้ควบคุมเครื่องทำความชื้น/พัดลม ได้พร้อมๆกันถึงครั้งละไม่เกินสามเครื่อง
ก4 ประกอบใส่กล่องมาจากโรงงานFaran ประเทศเกาหลี

การใช้งาน
เสียบปลั๊กตัวเครื่อง เสียบเต้าเครื่องใช้ไฟฟ้าที่จะควบคุมด้วยอุณหภูมิ เช่นพัดลม ไว้ใต้เครื่องด้านซ้าย และเสียบเต้าเครื่องใช้ไฟฟ้าที่จะควบคุมด้วยความชื้น เช่นเครื่องทำความชื้น ไว้ใต้เครื่องด้านขวา
กดปุ่ม On จะแสดงค่า อุณหภูมิ ความชื้น ที่อ่านได้ ทันที



ก่อนใช้งาน ควรทำความเข้าใจโหมดการทำงานของเครื่องก่อน ดังนี้
1. เครื่อง มีโหมดทั้งหมด สี่ โหมด
1.1 โหมด typ Output Mode สำคัญมาก ต้องตั้งให้ถูกต้อง
1.1.1 C (cooling) เป็นการตั้งค่า ให้เครื่องไฟฟ้าที่เสียบปลั๊กไว้ ใต้เครื่องด้านซ้าย เริ่มทำงานที่อุณหภูมิ สูง และหยุดที่
อุณหภูมิต่ำ เพื่อลดอุณหภูมิ
1.1.2 H (Heating) เป็นการตั้งค่า ให้เครื่องไฟฟ้าฯ เริ่มทำงานที่อุณหภูมิ ต่ำ และหยุดที่อุณหภูมิสูง เพื่อเพิ่มอุณหภูมิ
1.1.3 H (humidifier) เป็นการตั้งค่า ให้เครื่องไฟฟ้าที่เสียบปลั๊กไว้ ใต้เครื่องด้านขวา เริ่มทำงานที่ความชื้นต่ำ และ
หยุดที่ความชื้นสูง เพื่อเพิ่มความชื้น
1.1.4 D (dehumidifier) เป็นการตั้งค่า ให้เครื่องไฟฟ้าฯ เริ่มทำงานที่ความชื้นสูง และหยุดที่ความชื้นต่ำ เพื่อลดด
ความชื้น
1.2 โหมด dLE Output Delay
เป็นการตั้งค่า ดีเลย์ ว่า เมื่อถึงค่าอุณหภูมิและความชื้นที่เราตั้งไว้แล้ว ให้รออีกกี่วินาที ถึงจะให้เครื่องไฟฟ้าฯ เริ่ม/หยุด ทำงาน
ตั้งได้ตั้งแต่ 0-999 วินาที เช่นเราตั้งค่าให้พัดลม เริ่มทำงานไว้ที่ 32 องศา เราตั้ง 20 วินาที เมื่อถึงอุณหภูมิ ที่ 32
องศาแล้ว เครื่องจะรออีก 20 วินาที จึงจะเริ่มทำงาน หรือ เราตั้งค่าให้เครื่องทำความชื้น หยุดทำงานไว้ที่ 85%RH เรา
ตั้ง 25 วินาที เมื่อถึงความชื้นที่ 85%RH เครื่องจะรออีก 25 วินาที จึงจะหยุดทำงาน เป็นต้น
1.3 โหมด dIF Output Accuracy
ใช้ตั้งค่า ที่จะเริ่ม/หยุด เครื่องไฟฟ้าฯ เช่นเราตั้งค่าเริ่มทำงานไว้ที่ 32 องศา ต้องการหยุดที่ 28 องศา ก็ตั้งไว้ที่ 4 องศา
เป็นต้น หรือ เราตั้งค่าให้เครื่องทำความชื้นให้หยุดทำงานไว้ที่ 85%RH เราต้องการให้เริ่มทำงานใหม่ที่ 80%RH
เราก็ตั้งค่าไว้ที่ 5%RH เป็นต้น ทั้งนี้ ต้องอย่าลืม ตั้งค่าโหมด EYP ให้ถูกต้องก่อนด้วย
1.1 โหมด Cor Correction Current Temp/Humidifier
ใช้ในการปรับความถูกต้องของค่า อุณหภูมิ และความชื้น เมื่อทำการ Calibrate ( สอบเทียบ ) เครื่อง
เมื่อใช้งานเครื่องไปสักระยะหนึ่ง ควรทำการ สอบเทียบ เครื่อง โดยการหาเครื่องที่มีความถูกต้องแม่นยำที่ไม่ได้ใช้งานใน
สภาพเดียวกันนี้มาเปรียบเทียบดู ถ้าพบว่าค่าที่อ่านได้ ไม่ตรงกัน และท่านแน่ใจว่า เครื่องที่นำมา สอบเทียบ แม่นยำกว่า
ก็สามารถ ปรับ ค่าของเครื่องนี้ ให้ตรงกันกับค่าที่แม่นยำกว่าได้

2. วิธีการตั้งค่าโหมด ของอุณหภูมิ
2.1 ให้กดที่ปุ่ม Temperature Setting ค้างไว้ นาน 3 วินาที หน้าจอก็จะขึ้นโหมดแรก EYP
2.2 กดปุ่มเดิมซ้ำ (ไม่ต้องกดค้าง) หน้าจอก็จะเปลี่ยนเป็น อักษร C ถ้าต้องการโหมด H (ดูข้อ 1.1.1) ก็กดที่ปุ่มลูกศรขึ้น ลง กลับไป มาได้
2.3 ตั้งเสร็จแล้ว กดปุ่มเดิม หน้าจอจะเลื่อนไปที่โหมดต่อไป ที่dLE หน้าจอจะแสดง 0 ให้กดลูกศร เปลี่ยนเป็นตัวเลขวินาที
ที่ต้องการได้ เช่นเราตั้งค่าให้พัดลม เริ่มทำงานไว้ที่ 32 องศา เราตั้ง 20 วินาที เมื่อถึงอุณหภูมิ ที่ 32
องศาแล้ว เครื่องจะรออีก 20 วินาที จึงจะเริ่มทำงาน
2.4 ตั้งเสร็จแล้ว กดปุ่มเดิม หน้าจอจะเลื่อนไปที่โหมดต่อไป ที่ dIF หน้าจอจะแสดง 1.0 C ให้ตั้งตัวเลขที่ต่างจากตัวตั้งต้น
เช่น 4 องศา เครื่องไฟฟ้าจะหยุดเมื่ออุณหภูมิ ต่างจากค่าตั้งต้น 4 องศา (ดูข้อ 1.3)
2.5 กดปุ่มเดิม หน้าจอจะเลื่อนไปที่โหมดต่อไป ที่ Cor หน้าจอจะแสดง 0 ไม่ต้องทำอะไร จะใช้เมื่อเราต้องการ ปรับเปลี่ยน
ค่าที่อ่านได้ เมื่อได้ทำการสอบเทียบเท่านั้น (ดูข้อ 1.4)
2.6 เสร็จแล้ว กดปุ่มเดิม ค้าง 3 วินาที เพื่อให้หน้าจอกลับไปแสดงค่า อุณหภูมิที่อ่านได้ ในขณะนั้น

3. วิธีการตั้งค่าโหมด ของความชื้น
3.1 ให้กดที่ปุ่ม Humidity Setting ค้างไว้ นาน 3 วินาที หน้าจอก็จะขึ้นโหมดแรก EYP
3.2 กดปุ่มเดิมซ้ำ (ไม่ต้องกดค้าง) หน้าจอก็จะเปลี่ยนเป็น อักษร H (ใช้กะเครื่องพ่นหมอก) ถ้าต้องการโหมด D (ใช้กะเครื่องดูด
ความชื้น) ก็กดที่ปุ่มลูกศร กลับไปมาได้ (ดูข้อ 1.1.3)
3.3 ตั้งเสร็จแล้ว กดปุ่มเดิม หน้าจอจะเลื่อนไปที่โหมดต่อไป ที่dLE หน้าจอจะแสดง 0 ให้กดลูกศร เปลี่ยนเป็นตัวเลขวินาทีที่
ต้องการได้ เช่นเราตั้งค่าให้เครื่องทำความชื้นหยุดทำงานที่ 85%RH เราตั้งค่านี้ที่ 25 วินาที เมื่อความชื้นถึง
85%RH แล้ว เครื่องจะรออีก 25 วินาที ถึงจะหยุดทำงาน
3.4 ตั้งเสร็จแล้ว กดปุ่มเดิม หน้าจอจะเลื่อนไปที่โหมดต่อไป ที่ dIF หน้าจอจะแสดง 1% ให้ตั้งตัวเลขที่ต่างจากตัวตั้งต้น เช่น
5%RH เครื่องทำความชื้น จะเริ่มทำงานใหม่ที่ความชื้น ต่างจากค่าตั้งต้น 5%RH คือ 80%RH เป็นต้น
3.5 กดปุ่มเดิม หน้าจอจะเลื่อนไปที่โหมดต่อไป ที่ Cor หน้าจอจะแสดง 0 ไม่ต้องทำอะไร จะใช้เมื่อเราต้องการ ปรับเปลี่ยน
ค่าที่อ่านได้ เมื่อได้ทำการสอบเทียบเท่านั้น
3.6 เสร็จแล้ว กดปุ่มเดิม ค้าง 3 วินาที เพื่อให้หน้าจอกลับไปแสดงค่าความชื้น ที่อ่านได้ ในขณะนั้น


4. การตั้งค่า ให้เครื่องควบคุมเริ่มทำงานด้วย ค่าอุณหภูมิ
เช่นเสียบปลั๊กพัดลมไว้ ที่ด้านใต้ซ้ายมือของเครื่อง เพื่อดูดลมออก ที่ 32 องศา C
4.1 กด Temperature Setting ค่าอุณหภูมิ จะกระพริบ
4.2 ให้ปรับค่าที่ไปที่ 32 โดยกดปุ่ม ลูกศร ขึ้น หรือลูกศร ลง
4.3 กด Set อีกที่ เครื่องจะจำค่าที่ตั้งไว้
4.4 แล้วเครื่องจะกลับไปอ่านค่าปัจจุบัน

เมื่อไร ที่เครื่องอ่านค่าอุณหภูมิ ถึง 32 องศา ตัวพัดลมจะเริ่มทำงาน เริ่มหลังจากที่ถึง 32 องศา กี่วินาที ขึ้นกะค่าที่เราตั้งไว่ในข้อ 2.3
เมื่อพัดลมทำงานแล้ว เราต้องการให้พัดลมหยุดที่อุณหภูมิ 28 องศา เราก็ต้องตั้งค่าข้อ 2.4 ที่ 4 องศา (32 – 28 = 4 )

สรุป การตั้งค่า ให้เครื่องควบคุมหยุดทำงานด้วย ค่าอุณหภูมิ
ต้องไปตั้งที่โหมด dIF ว่าจะให้หยุดที่ อุณหภูมิ ที่ต่างจากค่าเริ่มต้นเท่าไร

5. การตั้งค่า ให้เครื่องควบคุมหยุดทำงานด้วย ค่าความชื้น
เช่นเสียบปลั๊กเครื่องทำความชื้นไว้ ที่ด้านใต้ขวามือของเครื่อง เพื่อให้ทำความชื้นให้ได้ ถึง 85%RH
5.1 กด Humidity Setting ค่าความชื้น จะกระพริบ
5.2 ให้ปรับค่าไปที่ 85%RH โดยกดปุ่ม ลูกศร ขึ้น หรือลูกศร ลงตามต้องการ
5.3 กด Set อีกที่ เครื่องจะจำค่าที่ตั้งไว้
5.4 แล้วเครื่องจะกลับไปอ่านค่าปัจจุบัน

เมื่อไร ที่เครื่องอ่านค่าความชื้น ต่ำกว่า 85%RH ตัวเครื่องทำความชื้นจะเริ่มทำงาน หลังจากที่ถึง 85%RH เครื่องจะหยุดทำงาน แต่จะหยุดหลังจากนั้นกี่วินาที ขึ้นกะค่าที่เราตั้งไว่ในข้อ 3.3
เมื่อเครื่องทำความชื้นหยุดทำงานแล้วที่ 85%RH เราต้องการให้เครื่องทำความชื้นเริ่มทำงานใหม่ที่ ความชื้นเท่าไร เช่น ที่ 80%RH เราก็ต้องตั้งค่าข้อ 3.4 ที่ 5 องศา (85 – 80 = 5 )

สรุป การตั้งค่า ให้เครื่องควบคุมเริ่มทำงานด้วย ค่าความชื้น
ต้องไปตั้งที่โหมด dIF ว่าจะให้เริ่มที่ ความชื้น ที่ต่างจากค่าเริ่มต้นเท่าไร

My Nests 8 Jul 2011

Finally, we have our first pair of baby birds! They are so small, so fragile and so adorable.
We now have around 11 nests and markings after all these modifications and improvements.
Three are on the stainless steel plate. I guess birds like the coolness of the stainless steel.

A trip to KK, Sabah, Malaysia.

By invitation from Benchamin Chai, we visited Kota Kinabalu, for 4 days, 27-30 Jun, 2011.

We really enjoy our stay with his kindest hospitality rendered to us. It was the most excited and educated trip with full of memorable moments with our host, Ben. We felt so overwhelm with the ways he took great care of us while we were there, thank you so much Ben. We hope we will have opportunities to welcome him in Thailand in the future.

The current design.

After all the modification, the current design is as the following:




A friend recommended us to change the partition as the picture below, as the above partition will block the flying path of birds for easy in easy out. The new partition will help boost the no. of birds staying on third floor, as this third floor area will be more private to birds. But my partner does not agree to, ego, ego, sigh!



June 21st, 2011. After a long discussion followed by a summary write up of what have been done so far and what are the results, and my 6 convincing emails to my partner. He agreed to take out the partition that blocked the flying path of birds into second floor. But he still do not agree to put on a new partition as recommended by a friend. Need more time to convince him, I guess.

After the partition was taken out, on that same day during the whole afternoon, I saw the highest number of birds inside my BH! Many birds also flew down to second floor freely. Checking with the CCTV records, it was confirmed that the no. of records inside the house for both third floor and second floor were the highest ever! Birds count on that evening is 33, almost 100% increase from the stagnant no. of 18 for 6 months!

So now the current plan is as below, much easier for birds to fly in and out. The partition was a big mistake!

More Improvements.

As the rate of increase is still low, we did many more improvements to our house as followings:

1. May 20th,2011, put 18 bags of fresh bird shits on all floors to cover up the strong cement smell as recommended by many friends..
2. May 21th,2011, added two more speakers at the end of third floor to pull in birds deeper.
3. May 30th,2011, changed internal pulling sound to Ben's sound.
4. May 31th,2011, put some of the dried bird shits in 24 containers with water added to stimulate more smell to cover the cement smell. Put an ultrasonic mist maker in operation in the roving room to cool down the temperature in this room. Since we closed the open roof, the temperature inside the roving room and inside the house is higher as hot air couldn't get out thru the open roof.
5. June 2nd, 2011, added 4 more bags of fresh bird shits on the floor. Cut off the M49 speaker at the main entrance and cut off the two speakers below the nesting entrance as these speakers only encourage the birds to play with the speakers in the roving room and not going inside the nesting room. A friend also helped tuning the internal sound to be more natural.
With all the above improvements, still to no avail, the no. of birds staying didn't increase at all. There are still only 18-20 birds staying.
6. June 7th, 2011, we then enlarged the nesting entrance to a much bigger size as reccomended by a friend since last month. Moved all three speakers inside the door a bit to draw in birds. Add one more horn speaker at the main entrance(total 2). Reduce 2 horn speakers in the roving room to discourage birds playing in roving room.

Birds seemed to like the bigger nesting entrance and more birds now dared to fly inside the nesting room. My partner used Marvelous Cloud as external and internal sound on 1st and 3rd floor. Second floor used Inap as internal sound.



The number of birds in our area is highly related to amount of rain, if there is rain at least 30 minutes in early afternoon, the numbers of birds visiting our BH would increased significantly. So let's pray for more rain everyday.





June11th,2011, after almost 6 months of operation, birds staying is 27 and 8 nests.

June 17th, 2011, my hubby installed 4 sprinkles on the cement roof to help cool down the cement roof that accumulate heat during day time, from 10.00-17.00 o'clock. We used a timer to set it open 5 minutes per hour every hour . Can't really tell whether it helps or not, but at least for a peace of our minds, :).

My nests.

Now we have four more nests and markings, in total 5.

First nest is almost completed, as of May 16th, 2011.



Second nest, as of May 16th, 2011.



Second nest, as of May 20th, 2011.



Third nest, as of May 16th, 2011.



Fourth nest, as of May 16th, 2011.



Fifth nest, as of May 16th, 2011.

Add Three More Speakers!

After we added three speakers in our roving room, it's still not effective enough!
We were able to pull in birds from outside into the roving room, but they still didn't come down into our nesting room.

On May 13th, my partner, Wor, went in to install three more speakers, two on the north wall and one under the nesting entry. Also he plugged in all the ventilation holes on third floor and second floor to reduce the air flow came inside the building. We left the ground floor untouched and also one on the second floor to let some light in to lure birds down.
Another thing he did was to seal the open roof with wood planks to reduce light shone into the roving room.

After the improvement, on the first day we still couldn't tell whether they were any improvement or not.
But luckily, 3 days after the improvement,there were raining daily, many birds showed up.
Today, on May 15th, we can clearly saw that birds came down from the main entry hole to the front of nesting hole.


The video records clearly showed that the records on camera 4 in front of nesting hole could outnumber the record on camera 2, the outside hole, of which it never happened before.

The problem still that, with so many speakers in the roving room, the sounds in roving room would be much louder than the sounds inside the nesting room. So birds would rather stay in the roving room rather than flying further into nesting room. These two videos will show you what I meant.







Next step is to install more speakers in the nesting room to pull the birds into the nesting room.

Further Improvement

Last week two improvements were made:

On April 31st, my partner wanted to add a partition to facilitate the birds flying into second floor.
Two days after the change there is no adverse effect on the rate of incoming birds. They still came around the house three rounds a day, morning, noon and one o'clock. The problem was the amount of birds outside the house, in front of the entry hole were so plenty, but only less than 10% flew inside the house, and even worse, less than 10% flew into nesting room!
On the third day after the change, the noon and afternoon birds were disappeared and they came around 6.00-6.30 pm instead. Same symptom, plenty on the outside, very few inside!

So on May 4th, my partner went in again to increase two more tweeters inside the nesting room facing to the nesting entry hole. My observation was once birds were inside the house, they flew into the nesting room more smoothly, less flocking outside of the entrance hole.

This video showed that they flew into the nesting room faster than before with the help of two more tweeters inside.



On May7th, my partner went to installed three more tweeters on the roving room to help pull down the birds. But I guessed they weren't effective enough, the same problem of very few birds fly inside the house is still there. The majority of birds were circling inside the BH behind the entry hole a few seconds and then flew out. What a heartache!
Watch this video to see what I meant.

Step by Step.

Today birds still came back on same time, morning ard 7 am, noon and 13.00 pm.
The first two colony were not as many as yeaterday, but now they flew inside easily without hesitation.
Some of them started to explore into second floor!

The amount of the last colony on 13.00 pm were much more than yesterday!
Seeing is believing.

As Expected!

This morning, the yesterday morning colony came back at 6.30-7.30 as expected.
As reported yesterday that, yesterday they only flew outside the entry hole and wouldn't dare to go inside. But today, they flew inside into the roving room as predicted!
Temp(Celsius) and humidity(%RH) today on 16.03 o'clock : 29.4/85, 30/82.6, no rain for 27 consecutive days.

Here are their video clips.

While playing outside.



Then went into the roving room.



Also the noon colony and 1.30 pm colony came back today on time!
Both also flew inside the roving room.





These birds are still in the surveying stage, they still have not decided to stay in this BH yet.
We will have to wait and see when will they decide to stay.

Happy Day.

Today weather is not very hot, there are rain nearby although not in our area.
There are three colony of birds visiting our BH today, in the morning around 6.30 -7.30 , at noon around 11.30 - 13.00, and 13.20 - 13. 40 0' clock. Only the second colony of birds fly into the roving room as this colony came since yesterday around noon time too. Yesterday they only played with sound outside the BH at the entry hole. So today they got braver and fly inside into the roving room. The other two colony only played with sound today and do not fly inside the BH. Ben said during first few days, birds will use their Echolocation to measure the distance inside. When they decided to go inside, you can see that they can fly in very quickly without hesitation as the distance inside has been calculated in their mind already!

Here are some of the video clip.

This colony came yesterday and din't fly inside.



Today they fly inside into the roving room.



These are the first and the third colony today that didn't fly inside.

Frightening Birds

When we change something in our bird house, if we observe birds closely when they come back.
We can see that birds are rather frighten and are hesitate to go inside the bird house.
They will take time in circling around and around the bird house before they finally flying inside.
When they are inside, they still fly in a very chaotic way and take time in each room before they fly further to each deeper room inside. So best is not to change thing too often, they need some times to adjust themselves for each change we made.

Close the Open Roof

Stainless Steel Plate was the last article that I shared to public.
From now on, this is my own diary only.

Today is the d-day, we closed the open roof and the old nesting entry.
Birds now have to come in thru the new entry hole and flew counter clock-wise into the new nesting entry into the
nesting area, into 2nd and 1st floor.
This way, birds no longer have to decide to choose between flying into 3rd floor or 2nd floor when they fly into our nesting room. Also after entering the 3rd floor, the flying path forces birds to fly smoothly into 2nd floor and 1st floor, rather than come right out to the roving room as before.
Only the flying path in 1st floor to the VIP room is not very smooth. It has to be an S shape.
Since 1st floor is very dark, I hope birds will fly very slow using it's echolocation and thus has no problem in flying an S shape into the VIP room.
In changing the flying path, we also have to change the direction of all the tweeters at each inter floor hole too.



Today, we also changed the internal sound on all floors to a new one, internal sound from Khun Thepchai's first set, as recommended by Khun Meng and Khun Bon. both claimed they are using this sound and never change it from their opening day.

Well we are told that next months young birds will start to come out and looking for new home.
I hope we are just in time to welcome them to our 5 star hotel.

Yesterday we encounter a new problem, pigeon!
A couple of pigeon started exploring our house since yesterday and this morning.
Will need to find a way to get rid of them before they start to occupy our house and scare away our little darling swiftlets.

Stainless Steel Plate

As reported earlier that I put few pieces of stainless steel plates in my BH as an experiment to proof some old saying
that birds like to cling on metal plate during the hot day as metal can make them feel cooler.
During the past few days, the weather here was extremely hot as there was no rain for almost 20 days.
The highest temperature during the day in our area (not in my BH) was 35-36 degree Celsius.

See this video captured at 5.42 pm. on a very hot day, unfortunately, only one bird and one incident might not be able to proof anything yet.
So just treat it as my data collection.

New Entry Hole, On The Third Day.

Today is very hot and sunny, the highest temperature in the area is 35 degree Celsius.
Birds came to play around 6.00 - 6.25 pm. compared to yesterday that they came to play around 4.30 - 6.00 pm.
In the morning, they also played from 6 - 6.30 am. compared to yesterday that they played until 7.30 am.

Flooded Water Level

Highest flooded water level on March 30th, 2011.



Just added a little water fountain for decorating purpose.

My first Nest!

So happy to see my first nest is being formed in this trip.

As of Apr17th,2011.



As of Apr23rd, 2011



As of May 16th,2011



As of May 20th,2011 It looks like there is a baby inside. Will need to find out.

New Entry Hole.

Just came back from my BH visit.
We finally managed to close the old entry hole and opened the new one as hinted to us by the birds.

Here is the result two days after the change.
Do you think birds flew into this new hole?
Please compare this video with the previous one.

Birds hinted to us "where should our entry hole be".

Today we moved our camera outside our house a little upward to observe birds' behavior.
It is so obvious in this video that birds tried to get inside the house on the upper most corner.
While our current entry hole is at a much lower position in the middle of this wall (you can see
our current entry hole as a black box below), most birds flied at the highest level of the building at
the corner and tried to find a way to get inside from that position. They didn't pay any attention to our
current entry hole at all.

Should we move our entry hole?
Sure, the sooner, the better.

See how 5 days of rain water can be a destroyer.

Normal water level behind my BH.




After 2 days of not too heavy rain. Notice the rain in the video.



3 days 3 nights of heavy rain! See the wind and rain in this Video.




Highest water level. Covered my fence poles completedly. 60 cm. of water into BH's ground floor.




Water receding, still dizzling rain.




Today, almost back to normal, after rain stopped for 3 days. Birds came out for sun bathing!
The green behind my BH 's gone! Now only left with ugly brown color.
Also leaving behind a big mess inside the building.




All I can do is a big SIGH! Hope it's all over now.

Pool in the Roving Room

We fabricated a pool, size 3.0x3.2 meter in our roving room on Mar16th,2011.
Since we haven't connected to the municipal water, we left our pool dry when we left on Mar17th.

Before.



Last few day from Mar 24-30th, there were heavy down pour causing flood everywhere. Our pool was filled brimful automatically by the rain water.

After.



Sorry for the poor quality of the picture.

Another Small Opening Wouldn't Hurt.

As written earlier that the rate of increase is not as expected since started operating in Dec18th, 2010, the reason might be
a) wrong timing as it was during the monsoon season
b) no rain in the area at all during last two months
c) the open roof entrance
d) wrong location
e) wrong design

Earlier I have thought of modifying the entrance in several ways. But many readers kindly suggested us to stay put until the weather is milder. Nevertheless, my partner wanted to open a small entrance hole in South side as he saw many birds flying behind the building to avoid the strong wind from the North - East direction. So we did! but still to no avail as the weather was still very dry and windy. But finally during last two days, we have rains, heavy rains. Birds started to show up and the small entry on the South side looked good. Birds kept flying in from 3 pm to 5.50 pm!

Hopefully, more and more birds will come in to survey the house as shown in the following video clips for the coming months.
No need to tell you all that we are so determined to make this bird house work.

Birds flew in mainly from the new opening.


Birds also came from the open roof.


Checking inside.

Monkey Business

Just came back from Bali, Indonesia.
Surprisingly, there is no bird house in Bali. Although I saw few birds in the sky, above the lake, above the Banyan trees.
The weather in the mountain area is very suitable to birds as it is very sunny in the morning and rains everyday in the afternoon.

So there is no bird business there, only found Monkey business in a place called Monkey Forest, near Ubud, Bali.

BH Visit

Just came back from my monthly bird house visit.
The weather there is still very dry and windy.
Rainfalls were everywhere around the area except 20 km around my BH, sigh!

Progress are very slow, only 6 more sweet spots increase from last visit.
The good news is they are quite evenly distributed between 3 floors, at 9, 5, 5 spots for 3rd, 2nd and 1st floor respectively.

Third floor.



Second floor



First floor



Rice tree in the paddy field nearby grew up fast. Within next two months will be harvest time.
It's the time that swiftlets love to fly above the freshly harvested field.
So I guess the prime time for swiftlet bird house in this area should be around May to Nov with two reasons,
a) Harvest time and b) Changing wind direction from North East monsoon season to South West milder wind.

Will have to wait and see whether my guess is right or wrong.


During this trip, also got an opportunity to visit a friend's bird house 45 km away from my bird house.

This BH is only 6 months old with 90 nests! It is stand alone in the palm plantation on the river bank.
This is my friend's second BH, the first one was built in the town center using the same consultant.
The first one is now one year old with only 60 nests.

So it is not necessary that town BH will be better than stand alone.
I asked them for the reason why the town center one was not as good, the answer was "too many BH in the area".

This house is big, 9x32 meter,3 floors, with only 2 amplifiers inside, poorly built, many problem to be rectified right now.
But yet, a lot of birds inside. I went inside the house at 5 pm, saw many big full size nests, saw many birds flying over my head with no fear.
This one is a real jackpot for the owner, she didn't know much about birds and now she is very happy with the outcome.

CCTV in BH is a must.

Finally after almost three months, I got my telephone and internet line.
Now everyday I can watch birds on line in my bird house which situated 600 km. from where I live.
I can watch from a computer that I can also reset all the parameters from my house.
I can search and replay all the recorded clips that we pre-programmed to the DVR.
I can count exactly how many birds stay in my bird house now.

If you have a mobile phone, you can also download program for free and watch your BH from mobile phone, anytime, any where that you have an edge or wifi signal.

More than that, we can observe how birds react to each type of speaker we installed, how birds react to different sounds we changed. Also we can see that at particular spot, there is only one bird, after few days/weeks, he bring in his partner, then we see some rate X action and later they build their nest.

We can see whether it rain or shine, we can see the light and wind direction in different season.
We can see predators, I saw a big lizard yesterday on the wall.
We can see the micro conditions of each floor from a humidity-temperature controller.
We can see at what time they come back, at what time they wake up.

Enough reasons to convince you all to install one? If not, there are more:

Every day I watch three BHs in action, the other two belong to my friends.
Three BHs are on different locations, I can see how the weather effects the number of birds played around the bird house. Yesterday and a few days earlier, my BH on the East coast was very dried and quiet, while my friend's BH on the West coast rained and had soooooo many birds played inside his BH.
Then, I heard about the Tsunami, we said jokingly, no wonder all birds with their natural instinct were hiding in the West coast.
In the afternoon, we had few minutes rain, then in the evening, birds came out of nowhere!
We can alert each other if we see something wrong, for example, light's out, amplifier doesn't work, temp is too high,etc.

More than enough reason now?

Location and Attitude.

We have a group of friends who talked about swiftlet only, nothing else. We all agreed that:

1. Good location, bad design, bad management, good attitude, still some hope, can be rectify with good advise from friends.

2. Good location, bad design, bad management, bad attitude, very little hope, need to work hard or spend money to buy advise, if lucky enough to find a good consultant.

3. Bad location, good design, good management, good attitude, keep dreaming with all nice words from friends, buy time.

4. Bad location, good design, good management, bad attitude, hopeless, no friendly advise, no support from friends, need to spend, spend and spend until broke or give up and move out.

One bird house in Bangkok , right in the industrial area, owner know nothing about swiftlet but rich, engaged a consultant with good advertising and marketing, result: one nest after 16 months!

Again for newbies only, choose your location wisely and be nice to friends.
Experienced guys may see it differently, sincere and friendly comments with your user name (not a real name, be brave, so I know how to address you or thank you) are welcome.

My sweet spot on first floor started to grow. I am happy, so be happy with me.

What is Echolocation Sound?

Caution: All the articles that I like to share here are meant for newbie only, not for the experts who knew every things already.
And if any of you don't agree, don't criticize me, just ignore it. Don't read any of my article again.
But any sincere and constructive comments with your name are welcome.

We all know that swiftlets used echolocation to see in the dark.
But I think few newbie like me know that the echolocation sound is only the tek, tek, tek sound, not all sounds from swiftlets are used as echolocation sound, not the singing sound, not the crying sound from the baby, not the mating sound, etc.

You all might want to ask the question "How do you know? Can you talk to swiftlet or understand swiftlet?"
I don't know until I saw the attached video.

In the video, an American boy, Ben Underwood, 16 years old, he was blinded since he was 3 years old.
He had cancer in his eyes, doctor advised his mom that unless he had an operation to take his eyeball out, he would die of cancer.
So his mom decided to let him have the operation.

After the operation, Ben told his mom "mom I can't see anymore"
His mom tried to comfort him said "yes, you can see by your hand by touching me, you can see by your nose, you can smell that I am here.
You can see by your ear, you can hear me,....... etc" A very good mom!

One day, one year after his operation, while Ben sat in his mom's car back seat, he asked his mother " mom do you see a big building out there?"
His mom said " yes, I can see the big building out there, do you see the big building out there too?"

We see things around us because of the reflection of light from an object into our eyes.
But Ben and many animals like swiftlet, bat, etc. can see by the reflection of sound from that object into their ears.

Ben can walk anywhere without using a cane or guiding dog as other blind people elsewhere used.
He only used the tek,tek, tek sound similar to the swiftlet's tek, tek, tek sound.
He can ride bicycle, play skateboard, basketball and video game by only using his echolocation tek, tek, tek sound.

He can speak and communicate with others as normal, but those sounds are not functioned as echolocation sound.
Only the tek, tek, tek sound he made is used as an echolocation sound for him to see.

Please watch the rest from the video and understand more about the echolocation sound by yourself.
Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLziFMF4DHA&feature=related

From all the frequency graphs that we saw, can we say that the frequency range of all swiftlet sounds, not just the echolocation sound are between 1-6 kHz.

This is going to be interesting!

A foreigner (illegal immigrant?) came to build bird houses in our country!
Thai people welcome him warmly, tried in every possible way to help him.

I am a newbie, I do whatever I can to help improve my friend and my own bird house.
I wrote whatever I found with good intention, right or wrong, it's my own business. If the reader don't belief in it, just ignore it.

This guy claimed that he is an expert in his blog, sent me e-mails, wanted to know what's the brand of my speakers.
I told him all out of ignorant! He promised that he would do experiments on various speakers and will share all his results.
Where is it?

Then later his friend asked him again about my September, 2010 article; Are we using the right frequency speakers?
He again wrote me and asked more questions, I replied with my sincerity and good intention, even the wording he used to get information from me was considered very rude to the Thai standard. He also insulted other bloggers, be it Malay or Indo in his e-mails. His intention is to get all the information and to write his own book!

When I wrote to him earlier in 2009, he used to be a much better person. He even offered me to see his BH.
I traveled down there with my hubby. Yes, he did let me see the outside and the shell of his BH. What a nice guy!
You all can see how he insulted others in his blog recently. It looks like a totally different guy from his previous writings.

If he doesn't stop insulting me, I can show you all his e-mails to me and let you all be the judge!
I supposed to keep them as personal , but he started to show them first, so I think I can do the same!

I can show them all, every sentences, full version, not just some parts.
Anyone interested to see first, can send me your e-mail too.

First Nest Marking.

Yes, I was reported today that I already have a small first nest marking on my ground floor!
(After 69 days of operating)
Today is also the first day that we have our own electricity. The sound system and CCTV are now completely installed.

Still awaiting for water and telephone line, hopefully should be able to get them by next week
as all the paper works have been completed.

Do I need an Improvement now or do I wait?

It's been two months of operation. It 's a very long and torturing 2 months with nothing to do but wait with anxiety. The number of tenants are too low, not up to my expectation.
It might due to the wrong season or it might due to the design of the house or etc.

I have to admit that when I designed this house, I didn't take into consideration of the wind factor.
My last visit, I found that the wind during this month is too strong, most birds will play at the South side of the building to avoid the strong North-East wind.
My partner suggested to open a small entry hole on South side to observe the birds' behavior. And as suspected, we found that the number of new birds fly into this new hole is more than those fly in from the open roof. But at night, the old birds still came back from the open roof entry hole. My bird house is in the foraging area, so there are birds around almost every day in the afternoon.

We also found that my partner birdhouse, same as mine, located in the East side, Gulf of Thailand, has no increase of tenants during last month. It was increased at an average of a hundred birds per month for the last 7 months. On the contrary, another friend's birdhouse located at the West side, Andaman sea, has more increment during last month.
So season or wind direction is definitely a factor.

See the video of my current design with open roof type. Birds encounter very strong wind when fly above the open roof. Left side is East, front side is North.



So to improve on the wind factor, to make birds feel safer when approaching the entry hole, I am thinking of two types of renovation.

Type A, just build up a wall, 1.2 meter high on the East side of the open roof, to shield against the North - East wind. For the below video, right side is East, front side is South or just remember that staircase side is West. Sorry for the inconsistent.



Type B, to seal up the open roof, and open two new separated entry holes at North side and South side as suggested By Khun Harry in his blog. But in this case, my big roving room from the original design will go down the drain!
Stair case side is West side.



I am proposing these two revisions to my partner, not sure whether he will agree to either of them or not.

Any comments from the readers are most welcome.

Thermo-Hygrometer performance.

I put these three meters from the same manufacturer, China, in my control room.
The first picture showed that at 9 o'clock. The humidity are quite different.
But at noon at the same place, same day, the humidity are all the same!

It means that at high humidity, the accuracy of these hygrometer is not very good, but at low humidity, there are more reliable. For Bh with high humidity, be careful, better to use a good quality hygrometer.

Yesterday my partner installed our temp-humidity controller in our BH. This is a local made brand, work quite well.
The humidity reading is 3% different from the Korean one on the back, both are placed on the same floor but different spots.

Egret Birds.

I was hoping to see Swiftlets in this trip, but instead I saw these Egret birds out numbered Swiftlets.
The weather was very sunny, no rain, windy and thus very few Swiftlets.

There are so many Egret birds in my area.
I was amazed by the amount of them.
I shot this video just 700 meter from my BH's location.

In the beginning of this video, we honked our car, they were frighten and flew up.
After a while, they flew back to their same spot, so we honked again.
This time they all stayed still, they knew now that the sound make no harm to them.
Clever birds!

I guess swiftlets also behave the same way.
After they learn that our move means no harm to them, they aren't afraid anymore.

Bird House Updated

I went to my BH last few days.
Finally after two months, they now installed electricity poles into my house.
Before I borrowed electricity from a neighbor. My sincere thanks to them for their generosity.



With these poles, the view didn't look as good anymore.

Water pipe is also coming.



Fence around the house is up.
Steps into the house is also finished.
It is designed so that any crawling animals cannot get into the house, unless they can swim!



Installed a few stainless steel plates on the plank as an experiment. The position in the photo was too low, my partner moved them up.



13 Sweet spots found, these are 2 of my favorite ones on 1st floor.

Feb17th, 2011




Compared to the same spots on Jan25th, 2011. Hahaha, they grew!





This time, I saw a swiftlet flied under the building above the water in the after noon on both days.
I am very fond of the feeling of excitement when we see something we've never seen before.

Another frequency analysis software.

Another way of frequency analysis, this one is more dynamic, more exciting.
It also showed the clipping effect.
Found it from You Tube, not my testing.
Credit to Khun Surachart who recommended me the software's name.

In summary, there are so many ways/softwares to do the frequency analysis.
The question is: how do we design the test and how do we apply the results for the utmost benefit of our bird house?

I 've already showed you how on my September, 2010 article at http://mynewventureswiftlethome.blogspot.com/2010/09/are-we-using-right-speaker.html

Frequency Spectrum of Swiftlet' Sounds.

A good friend recommended me a good software for frequency analysis.
So I played a few sounds and here are their results.
Please notice the frequency of each sound, mostly are below 9k hz. except the last one which is a stress sound, its frequency is in a broader range.

An external sound. 1.5k-8k hz.



An internal sound. 1.5k-8k hz.



A colony sound. 0-9k hz.




A stress sound. 2k-13k hz.

Development of Swiftlet BH Design

This is just my own observation from my readings. Anyone can disagree and add your comments.

I noticed that there are three types of major designs.

1. Long ago when there were no human designed BH, birds came to live in human deserted houses through broken windows. The first type of man made BH was to mimic those houses: window type opening, many rooms inside similar to normal human house, wood planks as in human wooden house.

Without any knowledge of birds' in habitat/cave environments, some were successful, some were not.
We then said that, it's all depended on luck or on faith of the owner.

2. Later when human learnt more about birds' nature and cave environments. The design of this second generation type were further developed to include pond in the house, double wall for heat protection and stability, machine to create mist, less number of rooms, speakers and sounds to attract birds, higher floor, aroma, etc.

The entrance holes were still mainly window type, with some efforts to make it higher than neighbor by using
"dog kennel" design with a big void from top floor to ground floor either at the middle of the house or at one side of the house depend on the size of the house.

3. Now we learn and understand more about those mysteries of swiftlets, we can more precisely control all the major conditions within the house with all kinds of equipments. With the help of CCTV camera, we can observe birds' behavior and response to our experiments easier. With the help of CCTV, entrance hole is also getting bigger and bigger with "open roof type" as we can easily monitor the safety of our house. With bigger entrance hole, birds do not need to queue up if they come back late at night. We learn about weather seasoning, we learn when the birds will or will not come back. Bird house success rate is no longer depend on faith or luck, but depend rather on how knowledgeable you are.

We learnt that swiftlets are social type birds. We learnt about birds' flying path. We create "Roving area" for them as a playground and also for them to adjust themselves between outside and inside environments. Inside the house, we called it "roving room", outside the house we called it "court yard type roving area".

Nothing new, only few more sweet spots

Just to keep the blog alive!

Five more sweet spots photos.

Found 2 spots on second floor, 3 spots on 1st floor. No increase on 3rd floor, only the 2 old spots.











The first spot on third floor, a little bigger.


Photos were taken on Jan25th, 2011