With help on different occasions from Tim, Zdena, Edwina, Jenni, Jan and Bill, I completed this year’s round of nest box inspections. It has proved to be a great year, with 11 boxes managing to fledge chicks: 2 Great Tit and the rest Blue Tit. In fact two of the Blue Tit boxes managed to fledge 10 chicks each. Most of the others were in the range 5 to 7, with 3 boxes fledging 3 or fewer. Only one box failed completely, excluding a couple that were abandoned during nest building. This was out of a total of 28 boxes inspected. All results have been entered into the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Nest Record Scheme database.
It appears I have been doing this since 2013 (except 2020), and this has been the best year yet. Previously the highest number of successful boxes was 9 in 2014, followed by 8 in 2018. This year’s success is certainly a contrast to last year’s miserable results.
5 of the boxes had been hung at a lower level, so as not to require a ladder to inspect, but these boxes have not been used at all during the two years they have been available and will need to be raised to the normal level (about 2.5m) in time for next spring. Ignoring these, we can say that 12 out of 23 were used, which is a pretty good take up rate. 6 of the boxes were brand new and were installed towards the north of the wood. It is interesting to note that all 6 of the new boxes were used, perhaps indicating a shortage of natural nest sites at that end of the wood. All other inspectable boxes are towards the south.
John Elwell
