Archive for October, 2005

If people have heard of South By Southwest (SxSW), it’s usually for the music festival portion. However, also hosted at SxSW is the SxSW Interactive. The SxSW Interactive is basically a huge conference for web developers of various sorts. As my boss would say, “So, it’s a big nerd convention. Are there any Star Wars panels there?” I can’t wait, it will be tons of fun and I’ll be around some of the greatest innovators in the web design/development community.

Update
My registration for SXSW is now being processed and the flights are booked. Yippie!

When I was a kid, my big hobby was purple martins houses. Creating nesting boxes for them, housing, and just watching them.

Almost all Purple Martins in the east now nest in birdhouses put up especially for them. Martin housing has a long history: some Native American tribes reportedly hung up hollow gourds around their villages to attract these birds. Purple Martins migrate to South America for the winter, but before leaving, they may gather to roost in groups of thousands in late summer.

Males return to nesting areas first in spring, establish nesting territories. Usually nests in colonies, especially in east, where almost all are in multiple-roomed nest boxes put up for them. Western martins may nest in looser colonies or as isolated pairs. Male will sometimes have more than one mate. Nest: Natural sites are in cavities, mostly old woodpecker holes, in trees (or in giant cactus in southwest). In the east, most martins now use nest boxes. Sometimes nests in holes in buildings or cliffs. Nest (built by both sexes) is cup of leaves, grass, twigs, debris, and usually mud. Nest may have raised dirt rim in front to help keep eggs from rolling out.