Groundhog Day 2010

My first post on my 2010 purple martin blog. My name is Robert Richerson and live in central Kentucky.

Yesterday was Groundhog Day, February 2, 2010. I look forward to Groundhog Day as I start to anticipate spring and the upcoming purple martin season.

I am particularly looking forward to this year as I was in very bad health last year, and I was unable to enjoy and maintain my colony as I normally do. One day last year during the season, I started to experience very tightness of chest and felt like an elephant was standing on me. I was rushed to the emergency room and it was discovered that I was in ventricular tachycardia (VT) with my heart beat over 300 beats a minute. After a hour without responding to medication, I was 'shocked' back into sinus rhythm.

I was medevaced to Louisville where I was diagnosed with "Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD)". I then had a cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) implanted in my chest. After months with several shocks and many more episodes of VT where my pacemaker brought my heart rate down, I underwent three days of ablations. Remarkably, this was not entirely effective and I was sent to Chicago where another ablation procedure was performed at the Loyola Medical Center by one of the nation's leading physicians in treating ARVD. I have had no issues since.

With a new lease on life and no longer thinking my death is eminent, I am looking very forward to this martin season and plan on expanding my colony by several dozen gourds. Last year I had approx 130 gourds with 116 occupied by purple martins. I have ordered from Creative Universe Enterprises two additional 24 unit gourd racks, 24 Troyer Horizontal Gourds with tunnels, and buying a couple dozen of natural gourds and installing Troyer Tunnels on those. I may also attempt to install Troyer Tunnels on a few Supergourd crescents. Presently there is no easy way to trap predators in the crescents, although the round hole Supergourds are quite easy to trap.

I plan on blogging this martin year with daily updates once the martins arrive in early March. Until March, I will not post everyday, but will post often. I will comment on my colony, purple martin products and organizations. I have strong opinions.

I have no idea if any-one's eyes will ever see this blog but my own. But if anyone stumbles across it, I invite you to keep up with my year and I will be glad to answer any questions or respond to comments. I promise to be controversial, and I hope to be entertaining.

I originally had 'Super Colony' in my blogs title, but I sort of thought that may be presumptuous as I am concerned my colony may fall below the hundred pair threshold. Last year, due to my health, I could not pay as much attention to my colony as I normally do. I also had a few hawk attacks, and even had a pre-dawn owl attack that took down a natural gourd. I actually watched the owl fly away. As far as the title is concerned, I settled on 'Black Gnat Purple Martins' as Black Gnat is the small community I reside in central Kentucky.

Regardless of the kind of year I will have, I invite one and all to keep up with my colony.


Photo credit: Jason Cohn/REUTERS