Arch Nestbox 2008

Introducing... Blue tit Nestbox number two which is becoming popular if not a little controversial in my garden. Should it stay or should it go?



The Nestbox above is situated above the arch at my silver border. It has replaced the terrace Nestbox that was previously sited here. Why did I take the terrace down?

If you are new to the Nestboxes in my garden here is a little update. The very first Nestbox I put up in my garden was a terrace - one long Nestbox with three separate compartments, all with an entrance hole. It was used by a blue tit two years ago who built more than one nest. We replaced it with another the same as the first had water damage.




Recently this new terrace saw much activity with a new blue tit visiting the garden. It was seen removing the wood shavings at great speed from not one but two of the compartments! We decided to help it by removing the rest and had intended putting it back up until we saw why it left one compartment alone - you can see below. As the house sparrows have shown no interest in this box and blue tits are not likely to nest together I decided to spare one poor blue tit the trouble of building two nests – which it would.


Unfortunately with one thing and another it was two weekends before we put up a replacement single box. In this time span the new visiting blue tit moved on. I did wonder if we were too late putting it up ten days ago. However, within just two days it did get a pair visiting showing a great deal of interest! Great news – or is it?

The sting here is that this is 'the daytime pair' that had been visiting my Nestbox that has a camera in it! Oh… what to do now. I watched them go occasionally to the camera Nestbox but more visits were going to this new one above the arch. I thought about this long and hard. I would still be able to at least see them go in and out of the box without a camera. We had a rooster in the camera Nestbox perhaps it would build a nest too?


After much deliberation I decided to block the entrance to the new box to encourage the pair back to the camera box. They were somewhat confused to say the least - trying to see past my tube of cardboard. I felt a pang of guilt with this but as I could share this nesting experience in my Nestbox that had a camera I chose this route.

What happened next? Well this pair of blue tits snubbed my garden completely! They still took food from the feeders but took it away to eat it – they usually stayed and ate near the feeders on branches of trees etc. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was now. I did nothing for four days. Then I took the tube out of the new Nestbox with the thought that they may come back to it - if they would not come near the one with the camera.

Unbelievable less than 15 minutes after the Arch Nestbox was opened up again this same pair were back in it again. I have to say I was so glad to see them again. Okay I would much rather they used my box with a camera but this way at least we could see nesting albeit from the outside of Nestbox. They are back visiting the garden feeders together again and sitting on branches eating the food from them. All is back almost as it was. But what has been going on in my camera Nestbox...

All photos and videos above were taken in my garden during March 2008.

Toil and trouble

Today saw some very interesting activity at the nestboxes. If you have been following the story of our Nestbox that has a camera you will know that we have a blue tit roosting at night but another pair visiting during the day. Tonight saw some commotion in the Nestbox as our rooster had an uninvited visitor!

The rooster successfully chased the intruder out the Nestbox, through the garden and through a neighbour’s tree. I wonder if this was the female of the daytime pair. However this really did unsettle the rooster. It returned to the Nestbox entrance a number of times before finally coming in. A quick look around the box and a watchful eye on the entrance hole for a little while and then she quickly tucked herself in for the night almost like she was having a bad dream. I watched a while to see if the intruder returned but there was no sign.

Our Camera Nestbox was not the first Nestbox we have had in our garden. The year before we had a terrace box which we are guessing (without a camera) had a successful brood. Unfortunately the terrace box had three entrance holes and the silly, exhausted, blue tit tried to build nests in all three boxes which you can see above. I watched it as it gathered moss from our lawn and took it into all three units. Now this Nestbox got quite damp so we replaced it for the next year – when wasps moved in! We cleaned it up last autumn and added wood shavings just as we did in our camera Nestbox. Of course we cannot see what is going on inside this box so I have no idea if it has had roosters.

This morning I noticed something on the ground below our Terrace Nestbox. It looked like wood shavings. I looked up at the Nestbox to see more wood shavings falling out. Then I saw the head of a blue tit – now who was this? Could this be a new blue tit to my garden perhaps? Maybe the daytime female was checking out another Nestbox but she always visits with the male not far away and he does visit with her.

The Terrace Nestbox had one blue tit visiting two of the three units by itself this morning and boy was it busy!! I am guessing by the activity it was a female and looking at the video footage it does not have the markings of the Camera Nestbox rooster. So we now have a new kid on the block! I should have taken photos of the amount of wood shavings that this blue tit removed in a short time – it was fascinating to watch.



I quickly ran out with my video camera and set it on my tripod. I have no idea how long the blue tit had been working but I caught 20 minutes on film as she went back and forward. I have not edited the short video above except for increasing the volume of the birds singing in the garden at the time. You can see how quickly she worked. Fog rolled in quickly over the garden tonight at the time a bird would go in to roost but I didn’t want to put my video camera out in the damp air.

Tomorrow morning I will sweep away the wood shavings to see if any more is removed during the morning. Mornings seem to be the time that this activity takes place. Oh and I wonder if the rooster will visit the camera Nestbox during the day to chase away the competition. This really is fascinating behaviour and I am thoroughly enjoying second guessing what will happen next!

The video above was taken on February 19th 2008

Terrace enquiries

I am delighted to report that this morning is the second consecutive day that I have seen Blue Tits showing interest at our Terrace Nestbox entrances. It is looking like we could be lucky with this location again. It was a small bird I spotted this morning shortly before I topped up the bird feeders – which returned to its business (pecking at the hole) when I came inside. I wonder if more than Blue Tit could use this box this year.



Yesterday lunchtime, shown above, is when I saw the first Blue Tit showing interest in our new, replacement, Nestbox terrace. This box is designed for House Sparrows who are happy to nest in communities – each box being self contained. The Blue Tit shown above is larger than the one that enquired this morning and it was seen chasing off competition yesterday – perhaps unsuccessfully!

Behavioural patterns, shown above, jumping from one entrance to the other was exactly how the Blue Tit behaved last year. I believe the same bird worked on all three nests. I can recall many years ago seeing a documentary on television showing the ability of birds to learn how to get food that was not easy to get at - tests were set up. From memory I believe this programme also reported that birds couldn’t count – they understood one and more than one but if two people went out into a shed and one left they would believe the shed was empty. The Blue Tit may simply not be able to remember which entrance hole he has been through - or perhaps it is wishful thinking on his part and he expects to mate with three females!

The Centre box looks like it could be the favourite of the terrace again. Perhaps the unsuccessful bird might consider a newer detached residence with natural lighting and recording facilities - but I’ll be honest I was hoping for a Great Tit to use this one.

The video, shown above, was taken in my garden on March 2nd 2007.

If you have enjoyed looking at this video you may like to see more – click on the link at the top of the right column where you will see further links direct to all videos published in previous posts.

New Terrace Nestbox

Last March we put up a Terrace Nestbox which was successfully used by one or more Blue Tits. Details of the success of this Nestbox can be seen on the link http://shirlsgardenwatch.blogspot.com/2006/11/preparations-for-winter-birds.html . Unfortunately the box unit itself has not been a success. Rain damaged the exterior and it looked unsightly as seen below. We felt the need to replace this unit with another the same seeing as the Blue Tits have started to show interest again – none have been spotted going in yet so hopefully we will have made the replacement in time.

New Nestbox Terrace, shown above, went up late yesterday afternoon in the cold winds but at least we managed to miss the rain and got it up before it got dark. We needed to get it up this weekend. The new box has been given further treatments to help it withstand the weather – so we will see how this one goes! At the moment it looks all shiny and new – but it will weather soon enough and blend in with the wall. We used a coloured stain, three coats, then topped this off with two coats of satin yacht varnish.

We left the entrance hole with no extra treatment as the birds, last year, pecked around the holes from the inside before they started building their nests. When we took the old box down we were able to see the full extent of the water damage – even the entrance holes were affected. I really doubt that the birds would have nested in it - unless they saw it as a DIY challenge!

Building your own Nestbox would be even more rewarding – should the birds choose to use it. The RSPB and BBC Nature websites have details on how to make one, for details follow the links http://www.rspb.org.uk/advice/helpingbirds/nestboxes/nestboxes/making.asp and http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/birds/thingstodo/nestbox.shtml .

Children too could be encouraged to build a Nestbox. My daughter was given a kit from a friend as a Christmas gift and plans to build it this week, see picture below. This kit, age 8 years+, comes with pre-cut wood parts, paint, paintbrush, sandpaper, nails and glue. It was bought from ‘Boots’ the Chemist - for details see link http://www.boots.com/shop/product_details.jsp?productid=1050839&classificationid=1020583 . We originally bought the yacht varnish, used in our Nestbox Terrace, to protect this unit as the wood is untreated.

Robin Nestbox, shown below, this was originally put up last November by my daughter when she was doing her school Bird Project. We have made a change with this Nestbox too. Since we put up this box I have spotted the Sparrowhawk perched on distant trees and on the top of our other hedge, my garden is ‘L’ shaped, where it would be able to watch the entrance of the box. For the safety of the prospective occupants of the Robin Nestbox we moved it round the face of the post on my pergola. An added advantage of this is I can now see the entrance from windows – so could possibly get video clips and photographs.

The photograph of the original next box was taken on January 14th 2007. The photographs of the New Nestbox and the relocated Robin Nestbox were taken today, January 15th 2007.