A month or so ago Dick Turner put up some nestboxes in the little copse by the recreation field. The boxes came from a batch of second hand nest boxes provided by Roger Hemmings and were originally intended for mice and bats. Some were adapted for birds of various kinds and some left as they were. The area had recently been thinned and did not offer much cover to wildlife this season so he was not expecting many to be occupied this year.
Yesterday (9th May) Dick brought a step-ladder and went round numbering and checking them. These are the results:
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1 |
Hole type |
Nest but no eggs or young |
Could have flown already – see picture |
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2 |
Open type |
unused |
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3 |
Open type |
unused |
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4 |
Mouse type |
Mouse droppings |
See picture. This type of box is designed as a roost for harvest mice |
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5 |
Mouse type |
unused |
These have an opening at the back |
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6 |
Large hole |
unused |
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7 |
Bat type |
Some small droppings |
See picture |
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8 |
Mouse type |
unused |
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9 |
Owl box |
unused |
This is a large chimney type box, but may be positioned too upright. |
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10 |
Mouse type |
Unused |
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Pictures are in sequence: 1, 4, 7 |
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Hi Dick
Great project!
From the photos the second box looks like a bat box – the grooves help the bats get purchase to roost inside, coming up through the bottom of the box and the the third photo (marked 4), if the hole is at the back of the box would be for dormice. Harvest mice don’t, I think use, boxes as they make nests of grass wound into tall grass or reed beds. People use tennis balls with holes in them for harvest mice as artificail nests as they are so small! Bat droppings crumble into dust and rodent droppings are firm.