NEST BOXES

Stephen Carter and myself did another round of box checking last weekend the Blue and Great Tits have now laid their clutches and some are also feeding chicks.

two different Tit nests

The Nuthatch with the camo mud over it's nesting hole was sitting tight so no picture but we were pleased that two possibly three boxes at the moment have been taken up by Redstarts who are in the process of building.

redstart nestbox

redstart nests not yet completed

Here's the male and female Redstart.

male

female

Also whilst checking the boxes we found this Stonechat nest which had chicks in.

stonechat nest with chicks

Their nests are well disguised in gorse, a low hedge or amongst old bracken in a tussock of grass.
Steve came back a couple of days later and ringed the chicks, because of work commitments I was unable to make it so no pic's or video. 

stonechat nest site

Our nest box colony comprises of 46 boxes of which there's 15 with eggs and 7 building which we hope will be at least 3 Redstarts. we also have 2 Nuthatches with eggs. The rest would be Blue, Great and possibly Coal tits.

We've also got an Owl box which was checked this week.

The great news is that we got 2 healthy chicks, these Tawney's have used this box for a few years now and have proved to be excellent parents.