Bird Boxes project - About

The long term project first started in 2007, with 10 Blue Tit, 10 Great Tit & 40 Robin boxes being installed in Lower Fulingpits Woods. Around 18 boxes were successfull.

The aim of the continuing project is:

• To help out our "feathered friends", whose homes are being lost to houses and development.

• To involve the local residents.

• To monitor the situation of the birds in our local reserve.

The local residents were involved in making the many Robin boxes, and putting up all the boxes. We must say a BIG thank you to all our volunteers for their help.

In November 2007 & January 2008 some of the Robin boxes were converted into "tit" boxes and moved around to different areas of the reserve.

In 2008 10 different areas of the reserve were surveyed and 43 nest boxes were used.

There are a total of 105 boxes installed around the reserve (as of 2010 season), with some of the old Dormice boxes being used by Blue Tit's and Great Tit's.

We now have a team of five people who will survey all the boxes, during the 2010 nesting season. The results will be used for research and also put live onto the Vinters Valley Nature Reserve website.

Each of the boxes are labelled so they can be identified, when looking through the records.

The plan, for 2010, is to carry out weekly surveys, from March - June, of each box to see which boxes are being used, by which species and what is happening.

All the results will be collected and at the end of the nesting season handed to our warden (Steve Songhurst) for the reserves records.