Bird Boxes project - Diary
pages 2009 Season - 18th April 2009
Another set of surveys were carried out this week and three new boxes were found to be in use.
Great Tit's are now beginning to claim their boxes and nests are being built. 10 boxes are now in use by this species. The Blue Tit has now claimed 26 boxes.
During her survey, Jane found and discovered one of the Robin boxes is now in use. A nest has started to be built with the material of mostly grass and moss at the moment. The location of the box is out of the way from too much noise so it should be successful. Hoepfully if all goes well I hope to be able to capture some video of the Robins and add it to the website for you all to see.
At the moment activity at the boxes in use appears to have dropped a little. During my survey I only saw two boxes being visited. In my own nest box the female Blue Tit is now incubating her eggs. Incubation takes on average around 14 days to complete and it is likely the same thing is happening in the boxes in the reserve. In around two weeks time we should begin to see the eggs hatch and visits increase, as the parents feed their chicks.
In past seasons the main food source (green caterpillars) has been in short supply and also the weather has been wet. Hoepfully this year each species will find enough food and can recover, as some birds will have been lost during the winter.
