The birds in our garden seem to have got used to the bird boxes pretty quickly this year - is this because I have put them up earlier than usual, or is it the fact that there seem to be even more of them this year?
Another visit from a nuthatch. This time it's to Box1. I wonder whether its the same bird as the one that looked at Box2 last Monday?
Ten minutes later and he is back for another look. He is certainly very interested but surely it's much too early to be checking out prospective nesting sites?
If this is the same bird as the one investigating Box2, he gets about a bit. The two boxes are at opposite ends of the garden with the house in between - ie they are some 40yds apart!
In our excitement about our nuthatches, we mustn't forget to mention the fact that we are still getting many visits from bluetits. In spite of what has been reported as a disastrous breeding season for this species in the 2007 breeding season, and in particular the fact that we did not have a single bluetit chick fledge, our garden is still full of them. When we examine our 'Garden Bird Watch' records for the BTO, we don't you see any significant difference between the number of bluetits recorded this autumn and those recorded in previous years.
A rather nice shot of a bluetit leaving the nest box area.
They get everywhere! This is a picture of a bluetit looking into Box3 from the side mounted camera. This box is also now back up again, having been cleaned out like the others. (By the way, this year we have decided to refer to this box as Box3 as its previous name of BBB sounded a bit odd.)
I have also taken the opportunity to raise the position of the side mounted camera by about 10cm as the nest built by last years occupant was deeper than I had expected and as a result we saw more nest than birds - or would have done if the chicks had lived longer than 48 hours!
At 32mm, the hole is big enough for a sparrow, nuthatch and great tit as well as a bluetit but until now, none of these larger birds has been interested in it.
By the way, the RSPB recommend a 25mm hole for a bluetit but we have found this a bit small and have always used 28mm sized hole in out bluetit nest boxes. Interestingly, the first year we had a great tit in one of our boxes, although they were clearly desperate, the great tit pair would not enter the box with a 28mm hole and it was only when I increased it to 32mm that they went inside. Perhaps our birds are fatter than most because they are so well fed!
Here is a great tit looking inside Box2. The hole of this box is set, and has always been set to 28mm so it will be interesting to see whether it decides to go inside this year!