National Nest Box Week 2007

[smallblueplanet]

Taking Part in National Nest Box Week

The aim of National Nest Box Week is to encourage everyone to put up nest boxes to help our breeding birds and other wildlife. The natural nest sites on which many of our bird species depend, such as holes in trees and buildings, are fast disappearing as gardens and woods are ‘tidied’ and old houses are repaired. Since National Nest Box Week was launched in 1997, thousands of enthusiastic naturalists across the UK have put up boxes to compensate for this loss and it is estimated that there are now 5-6 million boxes in gardens across the UK.

http://www.bto.org/nnbw/index.htm

Making your own Nest Box - BYO nest box link

Sponsored by Jacobi Jayne

Maybe we can solve the problem of pigletwillie's empty nest boxes too?

[wellie]

SBP, just over our garden (drystone) wall, which bluetits and coaltits nest in every year, there's an extensive 'untidied' woodland with lots of undergrowth such as gorse, bracken and brambles, which provides excellent nesting for the birds who come to our garden to feed, but I think I'll have a go at making a nestbox or two all the same....

It would, indeed, be fabulous if The Piglets succeeded in enticing birds into their nest boxes after so long.

It's ofen wise to site the feeding-stations 'away from' the nest boxes, so that the potential nest-makers don't feel threatened by other feeding birds.

[smallblueplanet]

Hiya wellie, I hear from my OH that they're 'strange folk in the Forest'?!

You've got a good selection of birdies there. If it were me I'd put up nest boxes, we've got hedges and stuff near us but we still had 3 successful boxes.

Here's one right near our patio windows that a pair of blue tits liked.


This one at the bottom of the garden attracted great tits. (Oh and you can see the wren box on the lhs at the base of what is a big ribes).




And up in the eaves (put up by our helpful plumber with his ladder) is perhaps my favourite, a double house martin box (avec martin!).

[wellie]

Manda, that's why the joke stands with The Piglets about Wellie Twelve Toes (!) although, I'm here to tell you, there's no evidence of strangeness in this household, f'tang f'tang olay biscuit barrel....
(We came here from Buckinghamshire nearly seven years ago)

[smallblueplanet]

Whereabouts are you wellie? My OH spent 20+ years/summers digging (archaeological-stylee!) on Crickley Hill nr Cheltenham.

What do you reckon to the martins?

[wellie]

Nowhere near Cheltenham, although Trousers has worked there off and on, and you've completely lost us on the martins I'm afraid SBP (!)

[smallblueplanet]

3rd picture down wellie - martins in their nest.

Just wondered where vaguely in the Forest you were, not your address.

[wellie]

SBP, this'll make you larf...... I said to Trousers "Maybe the Martins are a Forest-based Pop Group or something" so now I feel a right tit !!!

We're on the edge of the Forest between the River Monnow and the Severn sort of.

[smallblueplanet]

SBP, this'll make you larf...... I said to Trousers "Maybe the Martins are a Forest-based Pop Group or something" so now I feel a right tit....

Cor! far too trendy for me. LOL!


http://www.monnow.org.uk/ - looks a very nice area.

[Alice]

Hello SBP, thanks for the post and the pics. Enjoyed them. I have an acre of ground and loads of birds in many varieties. I don't put up nesting boxes as i find the birds nest in the trees, the shrubs, the ivy, the long grass and anything suitable for them. I do put out bird feeders, and enjoy watching the birds feeding there, and most importantly I think, I put out water, and enjoy watching the birds drinking, and bathing there. Even in this terrible weather, the birds are in there for a bath. They "queue up" and take their turn. It's quite interesting to note that birds we think of as shy and retiring (dunnocks) are more than a match for birds we think of as stroppy (Robins).

[wellie]

Hi Alice !

My Robins have been 'right stroppy' with the Dunnocks just recently, not noticed that before last week. We've got a three-tiered barrel water feature which pumps water from the bottom to the top then down and round back up again kind of thing (it's late!) and even though we've got a proper birdbath elsewhere in the garden, all the birds drink from, and bathe, in there.

[Alice]

Thanks Wellie, yes water is very important for the birds, in whatever form it takes, and provides some of the most interesting watching moments - as you know. Happy bird watching

[smallblueplanet]

Hi Alice - thats a big garden you've got. We can't all be so lucky! Don't see why you shouldn't put up nest boxes, perhaps nearby so you can get a good view - loved seeing the blue tits (near the patio windows) raising their young, or a particular species? Afterall I've walked through plenty of woodland and seen lots of nest boxes?

[vicki lorraine]

In Coventry the Urban Rangers are holding some free activity sessions for parents to encourage their children to make bird boxes and put them up in their gardens. If they dont have gardens the rangers will put them up in the trees along the canals.
The materials, wood and tools are all provided free.
Will be attending with my own little chicks to make more boxes and put up in our trees this week.