I was down at Linacre on Thursday evening for a couple of hours checking the progress of the 80+ nestboxes. The results weren't great, with just 11 containing active nests (4 sitting birds; 3
Blue Tits and 1
Great Tit), and the other 7 contained a number of eggs, ranging from 2- 7). Whether this is due to the cold weather we've been having recently, I don't know. There were a few other completed nests without eggs, so perhaps they'll be used as well now the weather's improved. Here's one nest (either
Blue or
Great Tit), containing 7 eggs. Interestingly, the nests at Linacre often contain fluff from the many tennis balls that are lost in the woods by dog walkers.
Blue or Great Tit eggs
The only glimmer of hope was a singing
Pied Flycatcher that was present, my first Linacre record since 2013. Whilst checking the nestboxes this nest was found.
Possible flycatcher nest?
As you can see, it contains a lot of dried grasses, so could be the start of a flycatcher's nest. Hopefully, when I return to check the progress of the boxes, there might be something very nice in here!
As always, the nests that were present will be monitored for the
BTO's Nest Record Scheme.
No comments:
Post a Comment