National Nestbox Week

As mentioned in yesterday's post, we have plans for the new garden.
The feeders are up and being visited, the next step was to put a couple of bird boxes up this afternoon, with help from Ryan and Grace. Being National Nestbox Week, and also Half Term, the timing was perfect.
Grace already shows an interest in what comes to the garden and I'd like to get them more involved in this kinda stuff, including maybe writing a bit on here. It's all educational after all. I've tried hard to get the kids from work, our own Junior Wardens more interested in their own environment and to appreciate what is out there. I've led Nature Walks and also got them involved in some river conservation work on the River Lambourn in Newbury.  My dad and grandparents were in to nature and that's where I caught the bug.

Back to the garden, I already had a Robin box (large open fronted box) and this morning on a trip in to town we also picked up a nest box for smaller birds like Blue Tits & Great Tits.
I'd like to put up something for House Martins or Swifts but not sure the shape and orientation of the house will mean this is possible. To have a couple of occupied Swift boxes would be amazing!!
Anyhoo, as a family we had a chat about what type of nest boxes we were putting up and where. Who might use them, why these would be good locations, but also explained that there is quite a bit of luck involved. There are no guarantees that the birds will nest there etc.

      

First box to go up was the Robin / Wren box.
A lot of cover is needed for these birds. When I lived at Wash Common a couple of years ago, a pair of Robins nested around a metre or two away from the patio door. I didn't even know the nest was there until the chicks fledged!
We chose to position the box behind one of the bushes that runs along the boundary fence line. Partially hidden by foliage but also currently visible from the conservatory. If it does get used, hopefully we will be able to watch any activity.

         

The second box for Blue Tits went further up the fence line. I'm not so confident on this one as it is on a fairly exposed panel, around 150 cm off the ground but close to the top of the fence. There really isn't anywhere more suitable for this type of box. I think the location is cat proof, but the lack of foliage around it may mean we'll be unsuccessful. Time will tell.

  

A couple more feeders placed on the apple tree then sit back and relax in the conservatory and snap a few of the garden visitors. Got some action shots too this time.

 The Starlings having a 'stand off' over whose food it is.

 Still arguing...

This Blackbird scrapes the suet out of the coconut shell then eating what ever drops on the ground.

Pretty impressive for a ground feeder. 

If you build it, they will come. ?

Google tells me that both Kevin Costner and the RSPB said that.

Seeing as I don't want to build a baseball stadium, lets go with the RSPB slogan and their 'homes for nature' campaign.

Three weeks ago we moved house. I know, It's like I'm a serial mover.. God knows how many times that is so far this decade! But this new house is good, very good. And so is the garden.

After moving from 'the estate with no trees' as I used to call in on Picket Twenty, (a new development on the edge of town), we are now back in the neighbourhood of Rooksbury, a place that needs no introduction to anyone that knows me. 

The four minute walk from door to riverbank is bloody nice. I'm back to losing ridiculous amounts of time looking around the lakes and the river system that is on the doorstep, but the other benefit of this house move is the large mature garden, complete with a large apple tree and mature shrubs and lawn. This place has real potential for wildlife and that 'home for nature'.

On P20 I didn't even bother doing the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch (BGBW) as no birds came. Ok one, randomly a Chiffchaff visited the garden on a few occasions. Other than that it was barren. 

The food on the feeders went mouldy and bread uneaten.

Moving in on the 23rd January, I had a week to get the feeders up and try and lure some birds in for the following weekend's BGBW. Midweek I was wondering if anything would come at all! All the neighbouring properties turned out to have feeders up and a steady stream of visitors; why WOULD they come to our garden when they already had an established food source... But come they did and still do.  A good variety of garden birds now calling our place home too, or at least a good food stop. 

Back to the BGBW and I decided to spend my 'birdwatch hour' watching on the Sunday morning as this gave the birds an extra day to find the feeders and Saturday night was colder than Friday. I was hoping the birds would have been more hungry.

9:30 a.m. Bread out, feeders topped up, cuppa made, sit back and watch and record. Hopefully...

Truthfully I wasn't optimistic. The 'all you can eat' buffet seemed to be next door and the birds need to land in your garden to count...  then... BOOM! The first visitor was a male Blackcap in the shrubs. That's a damn good garden tick in my book!

The hour went very quickly, there were peaks and troughs. Absolutely nothing for five minutes at a time, then halfway through we had a very busy five minutes in which we saw Greenfinch, Coal Tit, Wren and Starling. 

I was smiling :-)

From no birds the previous year to the following in an hour. (Only birds that landed count and these are the most seen at one time).

1 blackcap 
3 house sparrow
3 blue tit
5 Starling
1 woodpigeon
1 coal tit
2 chaffinch
2 Long Tailed Tit
1 Greenfinch (possibly 4)
1 carrion crow
2 wren
1 blackbird
1 Robin
1 magpie.

A lot of those were first time visitors to the garden., I had good vibes for this place!

Since then it seems that I am back to the days of Holtwood, sitting in the conservatory, busy watching what ever is visiting. Since the BGBW we've added Goldcrest, Rook, Goldfinch and Jackdaw to the list. Heron and Buzzard over and lots of gulls.

Going forward I want to create our own little backyard wildlife haven, with the kids help we'll put the bat box up and a few bird boxes. Build a bug hotel and put up a few solitary bee pipes on the apple tree etc. A few Buddliea at the top of the garden. I'm gonna explore the possibility of a Nestcam too. 

I may be getting a bit carried away here!

Here's a pic of the garden to show what we have to play with. 

The feeders are currently seed, fatballs, peanut and suet block, 

plus more seed on the bird table and occasional bread thrown out.

They seem to be doing the job. 

A few shots of the visitors.

Statler and Waldorf, the Collared Dove

 Jackdaw and Magpie, there already seems to be a 'pecking' order on the feeders.

Jackdaw

 Rook

 Long Tailed Tit

 Greenfinch

Wren.

Bring on Spring!