Sunday 24 May 2009

Nest Box Update

I apologise for not posting much recently but at the moment nest boxes are taking my time up at the weekend. I thought that I should update you on what was been happening in the boxes at the Boar Park over the past couple of weeks. The latest checks were carried out on 16th and 24th May.

On 16th May we managed to ring 2 broods of Blue Tits of 8 and 9 each, a brood of 9 Coal Tits, 2 broods of 7 each of Great Tits and we successfully lifted 2 female Pied Flycatchers off two nests. One bird was new and we ringed her and the other was a retrap. The retrapped female Pied Flycatcher, N806880 (picture of her below) was ringed at the Boar Park as a chick in June 2002 and we lifted her off her nest in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. Because we ringed her as a chick we know exactly how old she is and on 16th May it was her seventh birthday almost to the day. Amazing!

Coal Tit pulli

Great Tit pulli - 1-2 days old

Happy 7th Birthday!

Blue Tit pulli

Updates on other nests are that the Chaffinch in the leylandii is incubating 3 or 4 eggs; the Chaffinch's in the children's play area have fledged; female Goldfinch sitting and the Dunnock is incubating 5 eggs.

As we walked round checking the boxes we had at least two each of singing Blackcap and Garden Warbler with a supporting cast of Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. On the river were Common Sandpiper, Kingfisher and 2 Grey Wagtails.

Today when I went to the Boar Park to check the boxes I was assisted by 'her indoors' and joined by two photographers from Liverpool who wanted to photograph Pied Flycatcher. We checked all the boxes and amazingly we had a new Pied Flycatcher. Box 23 was empty last week and today it had a complete nest with 5 cold eggs, indicating that the female hadn't finished laying yet. So in 8 days they have built a nest and laid 5 eggs; incredible!

We ringed 2 broods of Blue Tit; an 8 and a 4, and two broods of Great Tit; a 5 and a 5. There are now 4 Pied Flycatcher nests and two of these have warm eggs, as mentioned before one clutch isn't complete yet and in one box 4 eggs had hatched that morning out of 8 eggs. So hopefully by the end of today the other 4 eggs in this nest will have hatched.

The remaining Chaffinch nest had 3/4 small young in and the Dunnock was till incubating 5 eggs. Interestingly one of the photographers, Steve, found a pair of Spotted Flycatchers in the woodland and one of the birds was ringed!

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