Saturday 23 October 2010

Nestbox Investigations

The Great Tit, or maybe several, has show a lot of interest in the nestbox having visited it on and off most days. At one stage it spent over twenty minutes in the box. I could see another flitting about outside from time to time so the first may have been calling for its mate. On a couple of occasions it even performed the 'nestbox shuffle' which I have only seen the Blue Tits perform in the nesting season.

A short video compiled from several sessions.


I knew birds often looked at possible nesting sites during the Autumn but had not seen this level of interest with the last box which had a smaller hole for the blue Tits.

8 comments:

  1. Hi John, it has been lovely to see the great tit's investigations of your bird box. We do hope it is sussing it for use next year.

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  2. Hello Twosie. Great to hear from you. The Blue Tits were never this active in the Autumn. Maybe the Great Tit will use the box as a Winter roost.

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  3. This level of interest you will end up building a terrace or even having to go highrise.

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  4. I hope you've got enough boxes and cameras John lol
    It looks very promising.

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  5. There could well be some trouble with the one box Adrian as a Blue Tit also keeps showing interest.

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  6. They are going to have to learn to share Keith ;)
    I am beginning to hope it may be used for a winter roost.

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  7. Interesting. We have two almost side by side nest boxes and have been watching blue tit activity busier than Picadilly Circus, I kid you not. Some birds are coming straight out of one and right into the other

    I hadn't realised about winter roosts, should I put some hay in the boxes?

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  8. Hello R. From what I have seen the Blue Tits are fussy birds and spend a lot of time investigating different potential nest sites.

    You could put a small amount of chopped dried grass or a thin layer of wood shavings in a box.

    Here is a short piece of fuzzy video I got of a BT roosting in very cold weather.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/m1btr/3165784601/in/set-72157607536738463/

    Whatever you put in will most probably be turfed out in the nesting season and I am not really sure whether they need anything in the winter. Just a place to shelter from the coldest winds. This year I am leaving the box bare.

    Let's hope they like your boxes and decided to nest there next year. Don't be surprised if they seem to lose interest. They often come back over and over with weeks in between visits.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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