A beautiful, sunny day and a more interesting one too. For the past few days, we have noticed some strange things on the floor of Box2. Today we discovered what they were and where they came from.
I was in the sitting room watching Box2 on the TV when I noticed that Fluffy had flown up to the top of the box and was pecking at something there. Suddenly, she gave a wriggle and disappeared from view! In spite of the collar, in the form of a cardboard tube that we added last year to solve this problem, she must have managed to find a way up into the attic.
Where's Fluffy?
What are these strange bits on the floor?
Fluffy spent the next few minutes tearing off chunks of cardboard from the tube which then dropped down onto the floor of the box - hence the strange things we had noticed for the last few days. Although we could not see her, we could hear her pecking furiously at something up at the top of the box and hoped that the cables up there would not be damaged as had happened two years ago. Therefore, Elizabeth got a long cane and tapped on the side of the nest box. Fortunately, Fluffy immediately got the message and flew out.
Fluffy's partner, Flash, a very smart young bluetit, decides that this mess is not acceptable and starts to clear up, picking up the pieces of cardboard and flying off with them.
Fluffy soon takes the hint and joins the clean-up session. Although clearing up continues erratically for over an hour, they both seem to lack the interest to finish the job properly, so we are still left with a few scraps of cardboard which are blown from place to place at the bottom of the box as the birds come and go.
It's about time the birds decided to get on with building the nest so that they wouldn't have time to investigate the top of the nest box. The devil makes work for idle beaks as well as idle hands it seems!