Hi, My apologies. For some reason the captions were not attached to the photographs in the link. The geckos are Bark geckos, the frog is a Common Tree Frog and the beehive is of Honeybees. With regards, Neil Soares.
--- On Tue, 3/27/12, ushadi Micromini <[email protected]> wrote: From: ushadi Micromini <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [efloraofindia:111950] My experiment with Nesting Boxes To: "Neil Soares" <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 1:53 PM Neil: I am inspired.... too many reptiles on your bird boxes... and did I see bees swarming in the last picture.. ?? Birds are funny creatures... a pair of house swallow wanted to nest in a plastic box in the top shelf of my balcony, but did not want to in a special nest box I provided.... now they are ignoring both ... but I am going to try you kind-a wooden box.. lets see if they like it... Usha di ====== On Tue, Mar 27, 2012 at 1:11 PM, Neil Soares <[email protected]> wrote: Hi, Thought this might be interesting : In 2007 I undertook this pilot study on my forested property at Shahapur, 100 kms north of Bombay. https://picasaweb.google.com/113756149687515321536?feat=email Ten nesting boxes were constructed in August 2007 and were put up in-situ in December 2007 [Please see Nesting Boxes 1 in the link]. In photograph 2 – - the top left was meant for Mynas - the top middle was for Woodpeckers - the top right for Barn Owls - the boxes in the lower row were for cavity nesters / hole-nesting birds. The study has carried on to the present day. My observations: [Please see Nesting Boxes 2 in the link]. - Most of the openings of the nesting-boxes were enlarged either by squirrels or other rodents [ photograph 1] - Perches on the nesting boxes had to be removed in some to discourage squirrel activity [photograph 1]. - Marauding tribals trashed many of the boxes [photograph 2] either out of curiosity or to get at the squirrel drey’s inside [photograph 5]. - Trashed nesting boxes were at times repaired and reused [photograph 3] - Only one nesting box was used for the purpose for which they were meant – a pair of Oriental Magpie-robins managed 2 broods in one year [2009] and that too in a trashed box [photograph 4]. - Many other animals used the boxes [photographs 5 -14]. At present only one nesting-box remains. As the experiment was a relative failure, I have terminated it. With regards, Neil Soares. P.S. – My thanks to Jayesh Timbadia for creating this link and also for assisting me in this study -- Usha di ===========
