Nest Box News - not good for Pied Flycatcher (1 Viewer)

Well given my garden has nowhere bird friendly for a nest box I've taken advantage of the RSPB's Nest Box sponsorship scheme.

One of "my" boxes is at the Lodge and 5 Great Tits fledged - does give a nice feeling when walking around the Lodge to know they might be "my" Great Tits,

My Second box is at Nagshead (the idea of having Pied Flycatcher's appealed!). Well the news for this year is not good.

The number of Pied Fly nesting at Nagshead was the lowest since records began in 1948! There were only 28 clutches this year (down from 36 last year). My own box was empty of anything!

I saw my first ever Pied Fly at Nagshead this year. I was lucky to arrive at the same time as the ringer who was kind enough to let me watch him ring a few birds so my first Pied Fly was 9 days old - and oh so cute at 9 days!! Mum patiently waitied for us to move before returning to feed junior.

On the plus side the number of Blue Tits fledged at Nagshead was up by 50%.

Lucky you, Pete - I'd love to be able to watch a ringer at work.

Thought the following stats from Nagshead would interest you,

The figures are for blue tits (naturally)

No of Clutches 196 (205)
Ave 1st Egg Date 1/5 (29/04)
No of Eggs laid 1561 (1580)
Ave Clutch size 8.0 (7.7)
No of eggs hatched 1196 (1158)
No of Young fledged 819 (547)
% success egg to fledge 52.5 (34.6)

the last two figures are much much better. All birds at Nagshead had better success egg to fledge.

Nagshead is very rural. The Lodge at Sandy though rural is obviously nearer to a town. There the average Blue Tit clutch was 6. Whereas at Nagshead it was Blue Tits having a good year at the Lodge Great Tits had a good year. A Nuthatch used a box at the Lodge to fledge 3 young. This was right beside a noisy cattle grid on the main drive.

At Nagshead 2 pairs of Coal Tits used nest boxes to fledge 11 young. Do Coal Tits normally use boxes?

Out here in LT, Pied Flycatchers had a good year - three boxes in my garden attracted birds. Not sure how reflected across the country, but saw as mant this year as in past years. Let's hope it was just a blip at Nagshead.

Jos Stratford said:

Out here in LT, Pied Flycatchers had a good year - three boxes in my garden attracted birds. Not sure how reflected across the country, but saw as mant this year as in past years. Let's hope it was just a blip at Nagshead.

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Hi Jos

I think the decline is long term over here, some sites have lost 90% of their birds over the past 20 years.

I think that 10 years ago there were 92 clutches at Nagshead (I can't remember the exact date the chap told me).

Nice to read they are doing well over there. They are engaging little birds.