|
Bird Boxes project - Diary
pages 2009 Season - 28th March 2009
The weekend survey in Zone 1 (Lower Fullingpits Wood) was carried out in wet conditions. Despite the rain, two new boxes were found to be in use. One of them is an old dormouse box and a female Blue Tit was observed entering the box with grass. The male meanwhile was keeping an eye on the area for protential rivals.
Blue Tits and Great Tits normally time their nests with the Oak Trees coming into leaf. I had a good look around the reserve and I think it will be another two weeks before we see any leaf. This season seems different but this is the first winter I can remember for a long time that has been normal. Hopefully, as we enter April, activity will increase.
Readers of our bird boxes section/results will know that in April (2007) a pair of Nuthatchs took over one of the boxes. Jackie has kindly volunteered to take over the zones normally surveyed by Jane for now. During her first survey she observed a different species of bird at one of the boxes. I received a phone call, whilst at work, and was described what was being observed. It appears the Nuthatchs have returned to the same box they used last year and the male was observed checking the box and even feeding the female. Not a bad result on your first survey. Hopefully they will be successful this year, as sadly we lost them before the eggs hatched last year.
The Warden also observed something unusual. Whilst checking one of the new Tawny Owl boxes he observed a Blue Tit inspecting the enterance hole! I hope this bird does not decide to nest in the box as it would most likely fail.
During the last few surveys we have seen three of the Robin boxes being inspected. At the moment no nests have been built, but we did not see the first Robin nest until April.
The results from today's survey can be found under the "Survey Results" section.
Ben Kirby
|
