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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Nestbox proofed against night predators? (2 Viewers)

Despite a fair bit of trawling I can't find any details on price or construction (or even a photo) - perhaps someone's been more successful?

The problem with using something like this to try and stop cats and martens is that they are both active by day too. They seem to be particularly good at homing in on the sound of nestlings begging for food. For an open fronted nest box protection is a real problem but for hole nesters making the box very tall with the hole a long way above the floor of the box really helps.

Cats have a huge impact on birdlife the RSPB estimate up to 55 million birds taken annually by cats in the UK!!

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-w...-garden-birds/are-cats-causing-bird-declines/


Luckily there aren't any cats near us but we do get martens occasionally. Dormice and woodpeckers are more of a problem so I added these stainless steel plates - looking forward to seeing if the birds will still use them.


IMG_20180110_161715~01.jpg

The Dormice are fixated on enlarging the nest holes and have made a mess of my bespoke boxes so I've retrofitted plates behind the holes - the original hole was the same size as the one in the plate so you can see how much they've enlarged it in just one season.

IMG_20180110_161741~01.jpg

I've fitted this one to an isolated tree surrounded by lawn which has stopped them reaching it (so far)

IMG_20180110_161906~01.jpg

The problem with the plates is that the Dormice can still get through a 32mm and even a 28mm hole so by using the smaller plates I'm excluding larger hole nesters.
 
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