Chris's Country Files: 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.