A place to learn, share and inspire others to create a haven for you and for wildlife.
Sign In or Register to join the conversation
I could use a bit of advice; this spring I put up 4 nesting boxes that I'd made and sited according the RSPB instructions on the website. 3 were sited on mature trees a good 4+ metres up, in the spring a great tit was coming and going from one of them....but nothing nested! I just took them down today and all they had i them was huge earwig colonies! The garden is big, and has several mature trees, plenty of birdlife etc....I can't think why nothing nested. Anyone got any ideas?
Gilly
Hi Gilly and welcome!
Put your boxes back up! It is not unusual for new boxes to be unused for the first season and the best time to put a new box up is now!
Birds need to get used to new things so it is best to put up boxes in the late summer or autumn.
I am off to buy timber this weekend to start an orgy of box building as several of mine need to be replaced and I must get the job done in the next couple of weeks!
Great Tits spend a lot of time in early spring hopping in and out of boxes and apparently taking ages to select the perfect home! Often I find that in the end they don't use the boxes but nest in natural sites around the garden and other species move in and use my offerings!
Take care
Jenni
God gave us two ears and one mouth for a very good reason!
Yes that's another good point that Alan makes Gilly. Small birds use boxes over winter to roost in when it's cold. Wrens are a good example and up to 50 wrens have been found crowded together for warmth in a single normal sized nest box!!
I have a nest box that is a year old that prticular one has 100's of earwigs within, I clear it out and back they come again, not a lot we can do about it I'm afraid
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16304936@N06/
http://suffolk.activeboard.com/f528553/birds-of-suffolk/
Well perhaps we shouldn't worry too much - natural holes and nest sites must be full of earwigs and all sorts too! As long as they are checked to clean out old nesting material etc. and anything that can harbour parasites then the birds will deal with the creepy crawlies!
Another point is the height the boxes have been placed, many great tits and blue tits will actually nest much lower than this, it makes accessing the boxes for the autumn clean out much easier as well. Ideally aim for 1.5 to 3 m high, facing north or east.
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
Welcome Gilly.
Nestboxes are a mystery to me too! I totally agree with putting them up now, not waiting till Spring. I have nest boxes which have never been used and some used for two or three different species in the same year. I have taken my cue from the one which is most used and turned the others to face the same way. I may be completely wrong, but I think they like to face in a certain direction either because there is a fast exit, or a good lookout, or a cool spot or whatever! But the birds are the best guides for what is good. I have found that the east facing direction is best in my garden and the best height seems to be no more than about 9 feet up. Which more or less fits in with what IanH says.
I also find that the nest boxes shouldn't be too near a food source! A nest box filled with babies near a peanut feeder can invite some unwelcome attention! And the birds will probably work that one out in advance too when looking for a des res.
Good luck this next spring. Don't give up though, sooner or later, you will get lucky.
bye for now
Hi Gilli,
It's not unusual for no birds to nest in your boxes, it really is the luck of the draw.
I've had nest boxes up for years, some times I'm lucky, sometimes I'm not
I have two camera boxes in my garden, for the last two years I've had a Great Tit nesting in one of them, this year a pair of Blue Tits almost completed a nest & then for some reason did not complete it.
Put your boxes back up and hope for the best next year.
Good luck ,
Norm.