There's lots to tell you about today so I'd better get on with it!
This is Box1 at the start of the day (well our day anyway!).
It is becoming clearer each day that Carlos and Megan are using our box as a cheap flat in the city to have a bit of nooky - they appear to have no plans to set up home there!
Here is the great tit back again. It must be getting pretty desperate by now if it hasn't got a nesting place lined up.
It drops down onto the entrance hole to take a closer look, but again it does not go inside.
The sight of the dirty nest and the frustrated great tit decided us - we must remove the metal plate and make the hole larger in the hope that we are not too late to attract some new tenants.
I therefore detach the power and signal cables and take down the box.
The box is mounted on a plate which is screwed permanently to the tree. To remove the box, all one has to do is to lift it vertically up about 20mm.
Here you can see the blank space where the box is normally mounted. At the bottom, you can just make out the top of the mounting plate.
Twenty minutes later, the box is remounted. It has been cleaned out, the metal plate round the entrance hole has been removed and the hole has been enlarged to about 32mm - it used to be 28mm.
This new size will allow great tits, nuthatches - and of course sparrows and possibly starlings, to enter. Personally, I think it's too small for a starling and we don't get many round here anyway - but any bird is better than the present situation!
Here is the cleaned out interior.