The recent cold weather has put all the birds off the idea of nesting so I have little news to tell you. However, our cameras have collected many pictures and I will post some of the more interesting ones below.
We hoped that the spikes that I have put on top of both boxes might deter the squirrels as well as the cats that live next door.
No such luck. I don't think he even noticed them!
However, all may not be lost. I'm sure that the cats are a lot heavier than this squirrel so they might be put off a bit.
A wren took a look inside Box1 last year and here is one sitting on the roof of box2. This is the only picture that was picked up so it can't have taken a very close look this year - so far.
A wren is another bird for our garden year list - one that was in the "hoped for but not yet seen" section. We recently had another visitor that was in the more select "has visited once in the past, but we doubt if we will see it again" section - a brambling! Unfortunately, my camera is being repaired at the moment and I didn't get a picture.
Next time, perhaps!
Of the two boxes, Box2 has received much more attention than Box1. This has always been the case. Perhaps being more secluded, the birds feel safer here.
Another theory we have considered is that Box1 is much nearer the rather busy feeders. Perhaps the continual stream of birds going to the feeders puts prospective nesters off.
This is a rather nice shot of a bluetit leaving Box2 after one of the few visits that did take place! A similar shot is on our front page at the moment as the current shot of the week!
It has been encouraging to see that quite a few of the visits to our boxes involve both bluetits.
The normal pattern is that the male goes in first having checked to see that the female is nearby. He then often spends some time in the nest hole looking around. When he thinks the female is about to come to the box, he drops back down to the floor and keeps a low profile until she has arrived. He then departs rapidly.
After the male has departed, the female can suss the place out properly. Sometimes she will even try it for size by doing a nesting wriggle over the floor of the box.
In this picture, the female bluetit is doing a one winged wriggle - a not common, but not too unusual manoeuvre that we originally thought was unique to Fluffy, the female whose box this was during 2003 and 2004.
We are rather attached to the pair of collared doves that frequently come to the garden. Collared doves seem to go around in pairs at all times of year - not just in the spring time. They are much more graceful birds than the wood pigeons that sometimes come here to feed!
Finally, a shot of Box1. Although most of the birds showing an interest in this box are bluetits, this one is definitely a great tit and after last year's last minute takeover of the box by a great tit - you never know!
I have left the hole big enough for a great tit this year. The metal plate round the hole is larger than last year - certainly large enough for a great tit.
We shall see!