This nest box season has been severely
disrupted for reasons that don’t need repeating. Following the relaxing of lockdown
rules, on Monday the 17th May with Kay I checked the Bagnor boxes in the hope
of catching the tail end of the season. The first box had unclipped from its
top fastening so that it was hanging at right angles to the tree trunk with the
front of the box facing the ground. I was just about to push it upright and refit
it but thought I should check the contents first. On opening the top my gazed
was met by a Great Tit sitting on naked young. It seems the nest had been built
such that the downward facing hole had sufficient space for the birds to get in
and out. We put the box up in 1985 and had not replaced it so we had been lucky
given the expansion of the trunk over the years that it had not popped off
before. The following three boxes had broods that had not reached ringing stage.
The next box had what appeared to be ring-able Great Tits. I transfer 13 pulli
to a bird bag, noting that some appeared a bit small. On closer inspection I
found there to be six ring-able Great Tits and seven Blue Tits not quite ready
to ring. On returning the pulli to the nest both Great and Blue
Tit pairs were alarming nearby; not sure how it worked but it appears to be a
shared box. Most of the 40 boxes were occupied and generally the Great Tits
were just about ring-able but almost all the Blue Tit were ready to fledge and
it was too dangerous for the birds for them to be ringed; had I tried the birds
would have exploded from the nest before they were called out by the adults. I
ringed 74 birds from 10 boxes including a brood Nuthatches and Blue Tits, the
rest being Great Tits. Having created 41 nest records I should get the end of
the story for these after a few more visits. Still not permitted to access the
Greenham or Snelsmore Boxes so I expect I will miss these completely.
Broods as follows:
Blue Tit: 9
Great Tit: 6, 8, 5, 2, 9, 10, 8,
11
Nuthatch: 9
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