[strick]

I was worried that the fumes from the Awlgrip might do the little buggers in but they are still kicking. I don't see the mother come around that much so I worry that she might abandon the nest. I thought about moving the nest but I'm sure that would have been a death sentence for the little guys. The hatch has about 1/8 inch clearance around the edges. It will get screwed down in place since I wont be needing to get in there except to set up the water bladder and connect the hoses and fittings...and maybe check on things once in a while. I hated to cut a hole in the deck like that and I also thought about buying a good metal hatch but they were $300-$400 and would have been rectangular or square. This will look nice when finished. There is enough room to mount a flush base for a table stand.

Nobones- I have a tranquilizer gun but the darts are bigger then the hummingbirds. I have one client that has over 40 Bison. It will bring down a full grown bull Bison when we need to. When I worked in the Vally I used to use it on the Portuguese fighting bulls or irate cattle that are out in pasture. Not too long ago I had a big cow with some wire wrapped around her leg and she was not letting anyone get near her to remove it so out came the tranquilizer gun. It also works great for vaccinating semi wild livestock where there are inadequate facilities to run them thru a chute. We just load the dart with vaccine instead of tranquilizer.

Gil- I probably used about a gallon of resin to make the receiver and hatch.

strick