Nest Boxes .....

ppink wrote: »

still got loads of blue/coal/longtail tits here too so I will get a few boxes done and set them up apart from each other.

Interesting! Blue's we've about done to death. Long's don't use boxes ~ look about eye level in cover that doesn't go a lot higher. Hard to describe it but; They like a 'stand' of bush, rather than a 'thinner' hedge. Nest like a smallish easter egg. No bigger than ye fist, if that big. Mossy looking thing.

Coal tits are my thing of the moment. I'm into these! NO Prior experience. I've simply never lived near them before. I've asked the experts though and the response was wide and varied.

Seems one can use a box with a hole in the side. Or even on the top(?!) Positioned anywhere from ground level to a few foot up a tree.

Pink; Bear with me. I raised this on the NRS's private / members only forum. I'll go in there and dig out what they told me. Wouldn't it be interesting if we both made identical boxes, this year, and placed them in similar situations ~ them compared notes on what happens?

House Martins? One critical factor we must get out of the way to start with: Is ye property painted white?

So, it's not going to be as simple as advising ye to repaint ye entire property white then? :P

Tricky one, mate. I'm well enough familiar with what ye'd call a bungalow. Height, up in the apex of the eves, would be fine. I've known them nest at twice that height and even lower.

It's not the colour of the wall ~ they completely prefer white walls. God alone knows why, but it's almost a strict prerequisite with them.

This board above the 'boxes' niggles me. Why did ye do that? I'm trying to visualise exactly what positions ye have these nests in. And why ye felt the need to put a board over them.

That snags. I could be part of the problem. Equally, they might just not have felt the need to come to you yet.

Have ye monitored them over the years? (Ye obviously, seriously know ye stuff. See that from ye other posts. I'd have you down as someone who'd have ye finger on the pulse) Have they built up? Have they taken over new sites?

If they're taking new sites and still ignoring ye ready made nests? Then I'd venture that it has to be something in that positioning.

Oh, and North is perfectly fine too. Only bird that ever nested in town was on a north facing wall.

Let's talk about that top board and the exact positions of these nests.

Oh, I see! Exactly like the side / end of my own place here. I think I was so focused on that nest in town that I was blinded to the fact that that place has the sort of eves where the roof sticks out a bit.

I'm sure ye know the sort of thing I mean. Birds shove their nests up hard under the over hang and bingo; They have their roof.

Nope. Can't honestly see a damn thing wrong with ye set up. So, the only real thing we have left to go on is; Are ye situated amidst a sellers market?

If that colony's expanding at all? Ye should have every chance of some coming to you. If they're static, or declining? Be a bit like me putting a Barn Owl box in my cow shed. Might look the business. But as I have no Barn Owls around me .....

Here ye go. I've caved in as I'm simply too busy. I've nicked the diagram from the BTO book " Nestboxes " by Chris du Feu.

I'll just point out ~ for the umpteenth time :rolleyes: ~ that they suggest a six inch plank here. I consider that 'minimal' to the point of being cramped.

When ye go down to the builders yard or saw mill then, to pick up a rough sawn plank. When ye open ye mouth to say, " A six inch, rough finish, plank, please. " Just force yeself to slip in the word " Seven " or " Eight " where ye trying to say " Six ".

Then ye can pretty much follow this Cutting Plan:

Yes, mate. Marine Ply's the Dogs. That stuff deserves the very best treatment. Drilled holes. Brass screws. Why the hell not use brass cup washers too? Only cents.

Adjust that cutting plan to ye sheets and ye can still make several bigger boxes per sheet. No problemmo.

Marine's especially suited to that particular design too. Because ye won't get the warping and twisting that occurs with soft wood planks. Lids / doors can be the worst part of a box. They contort into all sorts of shapes and ye end up with sticks or gaps.

Trebor; That's great, mate. And, like ye say; Blue Tit's already prospecting it! Ye'll have them in there this year, I reckon. Then it'll become a pretty well permanent thing

One word of advice? Take that 'perch' off. Extremely common but Big mistake, putting perches on nest boxes. Birds don't need them (OK, kestrels do. But, lets not split hares here )

No, providing any sort of perch is really just providing a foot hold for a predator who's trying to reach inside there.

trebor28 wrote: »

how the hell do they manage to get in there while flying??

Aha! See? Now, this is exactly what people don't understand. Right? That's why they well intentionedly imagine the bird must need a landing perch

Ye sat in a chair, right? OK. Hold ye arms straight out in front of ye (move the chair to give yeself room for this). That's ye wings, at the furthest point of their downward beat. Right?

Now bring ye legs up. Bend ye knees and then straighten ye legs. Or simply lift ye legs to horizontal.

See? That's how birds do it. They simply reach out with their little, grippy feet and grab hold of the bottom lip of the hole. Then they close their wings and pop in.

They do it all so fast, even if we're stood there watching, it's hard to spot those little legs kicking out there. But that's what they do

Know all sorts of weird stuff, don't I?

Ohhh, bless! Look at his little legs!

Yeppers. That's the sort of thing exactly. Only, they sort of lean back further when approaching a nest box hole. Bit more like they're sort of sitting on their bums, in mid air.

Distance between boxes? There's two answer to this one, guys. One is the stiffly scientific one. The other ~ and the one I favour ~ is, " How long is a bit of string? "

See, research has been done into the spacial density of the genus paras, blah, blah, my eyes are glazing ..... I think it comes down to something like five hundred yard territories for blue tits. That's in woods. Seems pretty immense to me. But, that's my understanding of the dry, academic papers.

Dunno. Ordinary people have reported them nesting in boxes pretty much side by side! Bang goes another Phd earning piece of research! :rolleyes:

But, let's forget all that. Let's just have fun! You just put up what ever boxes ye feel like. Where ever. I don't know if ye live in a terraced house in central Dublin or on an isolated farmstead in Mayo. How can I lay down hard and fast rules for ye in ye unknown situations?

Much, much more important than, 'How many Blue Tit boxes can I saturate an area with?' is the question; 'How many Different boxes can I put up, to provide for the greatest range of species?'

Now, There's a question we can seriously get our teeth into! I've done Blue Tit, Starling, Great Spotted Woodpecker. Next I'm figuring to cover the other side of the Blue Tit coin; The Great Tit!

Great tits are buggers for the boxes too. Only, in an ideal world, they have slightly different preferences to the Blue. I'd certainly put up one of each, even in the pokiest back yard. And I wouldn't stop there either

I like Great Tits. There's just something about them.

The sort of boxes for them are actually remarkably different from ye bog standard blue tit box. Great tits like their depth. I like giving them some depth too.

Because they need a bigger hole ~ 28mm. And the bigger the entrance hole, the greater the risk of something else getting a furry arm in there. So, good depth keeps the bird down, out of reach.

Two sorts of box then; The one we've already covered under Blue Tit. Only with different dimensions. Or an entirely different sort of concept altogether ~ and one I like, if only because it makes such a pleasant change ~ the 'Long' box style. I call it the " Shoe Box ". Ye'll see why .....

'Standard' (Blue Tit type) box then, for great tits, I'd want certainly that magical six inch square inside base. Then it wants to be deep. A foot would be the minimum I'd consider.

Some authorities have even stated twenty inches! Blimey! Ironically though; Would ye believe that was suggested as a way of stopping ~ wait for it! ~ " Nuisance " Tree Sparrows from moving in! :eek: Those were the days, eh?! 'Lovely great tits. Don't want those marauding flocks of Tree Sparrows in our boxes!'

No. Good foot or so deep would suit me, and ye average great tit too. Bit more's fine. But twenty inches? Waste of good timber.

And that, really, just about covers the standard type great tit box. Now how about this Shoe Box idea?

Quite simply, think of a shoe box and we're pretty much there Only, this one we make out of wood. But, it's the same shape as a shoe box. And the hole(s) are made at the end of the box. Not in the longer side.

Again, I'd aim for a minimum six inch internal width. About the same height. Length? Foot, minimum again. Fifteen inches wouldn't be over kill.

Some people suggest ye put a baffle towards the back. Little, low fence that the bird'll nest behind. Up to you, in my opinion. Its not being there won't stop the bird nesting back and it'll make cleaning the box out easier.

Perhaps a compromise suggestion might be a baffle in a foot one. No need in fifteen inches?

Hole(s), as said, need to be 28mm for great tits. And, as this box closer replicates the sorts of places they nest in my cow shed; Under the roof and behind wall plates. Long, deep tunnel sorts of places (Places which I can't get at, incidentally! Hence I'm going to block them and put up boxes instead, so I can record the nests) Light travels differently in them.

So, it's considered a good idea to put a couple of holes, side by side. That way, more light can get in. This, supposedly, encourages the birds to nest further back too. The whole idea of this getting them well back is to stop furry arms from reaching them again. See?

One little tip about this design; Use a wider plank for the top. It wants to cover the top edges of both side walls. Yeah? And run a good bead of mastic along the tops of those side walls, and the back, before ye fasten the top. Makes a nice, water proof seal, see? Handy with flat topped boxes

Ooh, before I forget; Great tits seem to like that bit more height, if ye can manage it? I mean; Blue tit'll just about nest at eye level.

But great's do like a bit of height. They like exposure too. Somewhere they can look out from and see lots. And they like a clear air space to come home through.

In a word; They do better on the wall of a building than buried away in the middle of a leafy tree. Trunk of an ash tree, in a fence / hedge line's fine though. Long as it's beneath the branches. but still about ten foot up

Edit
This tree is the sort I'd put a Great Tit box on. See how it's nice and clear all around it? Tree itself isn't encumbered with a load of branches either.