April 2006 Diary

9th April

The weather seems very mixed up at the moment of what to do next.

Both boxes were being monitored over the weekend. Only one visit was recorded on Saturday & Sunday, when our blue tit came back to roost.

The female has not been back to the boxes now for over two weeks :(

To try and tempt them to nest & come back, on Sunday, we carried out some changes to both boxes. It involved the removal of the tubes, undoing of 15 screws, a complete clean out of Box 1 & putting back the front of the boxes.

The pictures below show the steps taken. In all it took around 30 minutes to do.

Picture 1: Both boxes before any work being carried out	Picture 2: The inside of Box 1
Picture 3: The tubes being removed to allow the Blue Tit's to peck at the holes	Picture 4: Us removing the tubes
Picture 5: The boxes with the tubes removed.	Picture 6: Us removing the 15 srews to take the front of the box off
Picture 7: Box 1 being cleaned out	Picture 8: Inside Box 1, after cleaning
Picture 9: Inside Box 2	Picture 10: Rooster returing to roost

Both tubes have now been removed and Box 1 has been cleaned out. We left Box 2 alone.

Whilst all the changes were being made, our resident Blue Tit was watching very closely from the tree's.

The cleaning of the box and removal of the tubes did not put off our rooster. In fact it flew straight into the box, without even stopping on the perch!

Will the changes help encourage a Blue Tit to nest or even visit?

We hope so and will keep you informed.