Mega nestboxes and their unusual occupants

A few weeks ago in the wake of Storm Eunice, I needed to call in the tree surgeons to do some patch-up work.

However, when I have a team of athletic men and their ropes in the garden, I also never miss the opportunity to get them shinning up into the branches to put up some more birdboxes and check out those that they installed previously.

In particular, I wanted two new boxes for my Stock Doves. This pretty woodland relative of the Wood Pigeon appears to be moving successfully into gardens and parks in some areas, if  they've got tree-holes or their equivalent to nest in.

So here is Marley, strapped onto the tree about 30 foot up, getting a Stock Dove box into position. You can see it is quite a beast of a box. This is a Robin-nestbox-on-steroids!

One of my ongoing dilemmas is how to attach nestboxes to trees without causing the tree any damage. I decided with these boxes to try using polyester ratchet straps.

So the photo below is Marley wrapping the strap around the tree prior to the box going up. In fact, I used two straps per box, about a foot apart. The great thing about the straps is that they don't need to be ratcheted tight, which will allow the trunk to expand as it grows, plus the straps have a bit of stretch in them, helping even further.

Then, to allow the box to hook onto the straps, I screwed a couple of headboard hanging brackets onto the back of each box, and these just hook over the ratchet straps. It means the box itself isn't affixed to the tree at all

Here is one of my new boxes in position, looking very smart.

However, it is nothing compared to my new RSPB Tawny Owl box. What a whopper! The perch is for the youngsters when they fledge (I hope).

What was then fascinating was seeing what was in my existing Tawny Owl box. I was sure there were no birds in there as Ivy had grown across the entrance. What I hadn't expected was the tree surgeons, when they pulled away the Ivy, to call down in excitement that the box was full of pipes!

And indeed it was! Unbeknownst to me, the box had been used at some stage by a colony of Honeybees, which had filled the box from top to bottom with columns of honeycomb. As with most feral Honeybee colonies, it clearly hadn't persisted, but it was fascinating nevertheless to see the handiwork of these masterbuilders.

With my trio of new boxes in place, we'll now see if they attract any takers. I don't mind if it takes a while - with multiple boxes around the garden for everything from Hedgehogs to bats, Blue Tits to Swifts, I'm guaranteed at least some guests every year, and wondering who will move in next is always an exciting waiting game.