"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"TheScullster" wrote in message
. uk...
Hi all

Just thought you guys might be interested to hear the outcome of an
on-going bird box saga.

A couple of years ago it became apparent that, although there was some
interest shown in our bird box, there were no takers for residency.
It looked as though this may be due to the entrance hole having been
enlarged by previous visitors. So I made a face plate out of aluminium
to cover the existing larger hole and present a neater and smaller
version to potential clients.
There was again lots of interest (and plenty of loud beak knocking) but
still no takers. So I took off the face plated and made another out of
ply - thinking that maybe the birds didn't like the fact that their beaks
were now well blunt and they had not managed to modify the entrance to
their own personal taste.
About 3 months ago I went up the ladder to retrieve the box and fit the
ply faceplate. As soon as I disturbed the box, a loud buzzing sound
prompted me to abandon the re-furb rather hurriedly. Despite regular
observation since, I have not seen any insect activity around the box.
Yesterday, I plucked up courage to go back up the ladder. Having covered
the entrance hole with duct tape, I detached the birdbox and returned to
terra firma to investigate. As anticipated, there was a
fortunately-abandoned insect nest of some sort buried in the old bird
nesting material - google images suggest that this is either a bee or
hornets former home. Not a large settlement, the nest volume is maybe
equal to a tennis ball at most. Still I wouldn't have liked to incur the
wrath of its inhabitants nonetheless.

So I have now fitted the ply facia and hope it will be more appealing to
the local bird population next year.


Thanks for this interesting post.
Around 5 years ago (or maybe more, time flies) I had a orgy of making
nest boxes as I'd bought a book about it from the BTO by Chris de Feu. I
got myself a jigsaw and those drill bits that make big holes and set to
work on some 6 inch floorboards.
Almost all of these boxes have been taken up every year. 25mm hole for
blue tits, 28mm for great tits and I made a deep box with a letterbox type
hole across the top which has been used by robins.
My only failure has been the treecreeper box. I know they are here but
they are notoriously difficult to get to nest in artificial boxes even
though made to exact specifications. Ah well.. can't win them all, eh?
Tina



Since then



Several years ago a friend of mine a keen ornithologist concerned himself
with the question of Pied Flycatchers migrating to West Wales, at least as
far south as the Swansea Valley. Four of us constructed. 45 nest boxes in
all and installed them in a local wooded valley. The entrance holes were
blocked with demi john corks to prevent the blue tits and great tits
nesting. This was successful and after the corks were removed, eventually
40 out of the 45 boxes were taken up by Pied Fly Catchers. Before this it
was thought they didn't come further south than about Aberystwyth, mid
Wales..

Bill