Bluetit Diary    Apr 2005 (18)

 

 

Sunday 10th April, 2005

Yesterday evening I did something I have never done before.  I made sure that Carlos did not roost in the box he had been using for that purpose (and others!) for some time now.

Having cleared out the nest box and seen that the great tit pair seemed very interested in it, we felt it would be stupid to let Carlos roost there again.  But how to stop him?  We hoped that if we left the lights on, that they may put him off - but we as we keep telling other people, the birds quickly get used to the lights being on and appear to be totally unaffected by them.

By a quarter to eight, we started to hope that Carlos would realise he was not wanted and keep away - but at 7.48 he turned up as bold as brass and looked as though he was going to roost again.

What should we do?  Having got the great tits interested, we couldn't just leave them to cope with a nest dirtied by Carlos overnight, so we agreed that I should try to scare him away.

The technique I adopted was to walk towards the nest box, clapping loudly about once every second.  The first time I had with me a long cane and as he was still in the box as I was standing beneath the box, I gave it a gently tap on the front with the cane.  That was enough and Carlos flew out immediately.  He went to the hedge nearby and clicked noisily as bluetits do for their alarm call.

We hoped that would be that, but in less than a minute he was back again.  This time I didn't have to tap the box - just walking up to the box and clapping was enough.  I had to repeat this four or five times before he finally became convinced that I meant business and would not let him roost their overnight.

 

It was nearly 5 past eight before he left for the last time.

We both felt very sorry for Carlos but he and Megan were clearly not going to raise a brood in that box this year and the great tit pair looked very interested.  Better a great tit brood than nothing but a pile of droppings!

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