Big difference between the upper and lower valleys. Haw Wood revealed 11/11 boxes occupied with 9 of these being tits, including a full clutches of 12 + 9 being incubated with the rest containing 3, 4, 7, 8, 8, with 2 incomplete nests. Pied Flys comprised one completed nest and one just started
At the other end of the valley, a set of newly-erected boxes alongside Mill Stream by the northern fringe of Thrushgill clearfell comprised: one presumed inexperienced tit spp with 3 eggs in a barely completed nest, another tit with just one egg, a very rapidly completed Pied Flycatcher nest with noisy male in attendance, two nests presumed to be completed Redstart and another 3 containing bits and bobs of material, hardly deserving the term "nest", which suggested Redstart or Pied Fly. Are Redstarts always elusive during pre/early egg-laying stage - no birds anywhere near the completed nests? 6 boxes were completely empty
Not sure about the ones in between the lower and upper extremes as I am not involved in the monitoring, but at least 5 Pied Fly nests reportedly involved
By no means certain all the females are in yet for either Pied Fly or Redstart as, despite an early mass arrival e.g. 9th-10th April, the recent weather has really blocked stuff - e.g. Swallow numbers are still very low.
1 comment:
Hi Pete,
if you have 11/11 boxes occupied, would it would be useful to have more boxes so as to avoid nest-site competition? If you had any more, its not too late to get them up as birds will keep on arriving into mid-May
paul
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