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Droversway Nest Box Summary 2017

Droversway Nest Box Summary 2017
Simon McCabe

This note summarises the observations made to date in 2017. The scheme currently consists of 48 small and three large nest boxes located in three areas, in the woodland to the west of your property, around the Lake and amongst the Park and adjoining fields. The small holed boxes are designed to attract titmouse and tree sparrows and the large boxes are designed for owls and stock doves. I have summarised the results of both the nest box studies and ringing activities separately.


The summary of the findings was:


Nestboxsummary


The weather in 2016 was not good for these species, whereas in 2017 the spring was dry and warm and this stimulated early breeding and meant that when the weather changed in May most birds had raised their young.


Comparing the fledging rate for both Blue Tits and Great tits from 2016 and 2017 shows that there was a great improvement from 2016 to 2017 and the fledging rates recorded in 2017 were good when compared to others.


James was interested in finding out more about the adults using the nest boxes and so arranged to trap adults near their chosen nest sites. In total, 14 adults were trapped at 10 nest boxes. Of these individuals, 10 were already ringed; of these 10, only two had been ringed as pullus in nest boxes themselves. Since (almost) all pullus from nest boxes on the site have been ringed since 2014, these individuals are highly likely to have come from elsewhere. The details of these recaptures are shown in Table 1.


In addition, 2 broods of stock dove, 3 swallow nests, 1 goldfinch, 1 song thrush and 1 Canada goose nest were monitored.”

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