2022 nesting box log

Below are summaries of the use of our nest boxes in 2022.

Where the species using the box to nest in is known, this is indicated in the left table.

The data suggest that our 28mm boxes have been well used, with slightly less use of the 32mm (both round and oval) holed boxes as a proportion of the boxes available. Around half of our boxes (excluding consideration of the specialist sparrow and starling boxes) have been consistently used in each of the three years. Since 60% use is regarded as saturation use, we wouldn't necessarily expect a higher percentage of the boxes to be nested in. Boxes not used for nesting may still be used for food storage or for night roosting. 

When we have identified the species using the boxes, it has, to date, always been either the great tit or the blue tit.

None of the four open-fronted boxes has had any evidence of nesting activity at all. It may be that these have not been best located to suit the species which might use them: robins, for example, prefer to nest two metres or less from the ground, and ours are all higher in the canopy than this. We chose high locations because of the risk of predation from cats, and disturbance: robins are very sensitive to disturbance and may desert nests if disturbed. Other species which may use open-fronted boxes are wrens, blackbirds and song thrush. Wrens and blackbirds are still relatively common, but song thrush are now an amber listed bird (of serious conservation concern), its numbers having plummeted by more than 50% between 1970 and 1995. There has in recent years been a song thrush maintaining a territory in the Green - so it must have found somewhere preferable to raise its young!

We may consider moving the open-fronted nests, although finding suitably hidden locations in Redland Green was surprisingly difficult. Many trees simply weren't suitable (lack of a vertical attachment place facing between north and east) or because of the lack of nearby vegetation.