13th January 2024: day one of the FOAW annual nest box clean and survey

A fine but cold day for day one of our annual survey and clean of our nest boxes in Adel Woods. At 10 am we had an amazing turnout of nine people - and later on twelve when three more people joined us in the woods!

We have thirty eight tit boxes and four robin boxes in Adel Woods, so we had our work cut out! Tit boxes are the familiar nest boxes with a round hole in the front. Robins will not use tit boxes and prefer a box with a large opening at the front (as shown below) placed near the ground – or not to use a nest box at all. 

We need to clean the nest boxes because tits and robins do not re-use nests from previous years. In 2021 we were unable to clean out the nest boxes due to the covid lockdown and when we surveyed the nest boxes in January 2022 we found that in Spring 2021 nests had been built on top of the previous year’s nests. This probably happens all the time in natural nesting holes, but it is not a good start for young chicks because the old nesting material is frequently full of fleas and mites, and sometimes is very wet.

Our morning’s work

We set off down Crag Lane and then up the “diagonal” path on the right hand side of Crag Lane, just before Old Leo’s car park. We paused at the entrance to the path to have a look at some Yellow Brain fungus (see yesterday’s blog post) and then started work cleaning our first nest box, number 17.

FOAW’s tit boxes have three different sizes of entrance hole. The two larger sizes, 28mm or 32mm, allow access to blue tits, great tits or nuthatches. The smallest entrance hole, 25mm, permits access only for blue tits. Coal tits may use nest boxes, but prefer a nest box only a metre or so above the ground so they do not use our tit boxes which are all at least three metres from the ground.

Nest box 17 seemed to contain two typical tit nests made of moss and grass – a great tit nest containing two unhatched eggs, and, on top of it, a blue tit nest containing one unhatched egg. Blue tit and great tit eggs look very similar, but great tit eggs are slightly bigger (17.5mm x 13.5mm) than blue tit eggs (15.6mm x 12mm).

We have covered all our wooden tit boxes with damp proofing plastic to keep them dry. This has been very successful over the years, but the plastic gets holes where pecked by the birds and this year we had to replace or patch up many of the nest boxes.

This morning we surveyed eleven tit boxes and two robin boxes. Ten tit boxes had nests inside them, and one a partly built tit nest. Some had one or two unhatched eggs concealed in the nesting material but since great tits lay seven to nine eggs and blue tits eight to twelve eggs, we infer that most of the nests were successful even though some eggs did not hatch. One nest contained the skeleton of a fully formed bird – probably a chick, but perhaps an adult. One contained a sweet chestnut shell, indicating that after the tits departed a wood mouse moved in for a while.

Turning to the robin boxes, one contained lots of leaves and had clearly been used by a squirrel for roosting, while the other contained a partly formed tit nest.

One of the most exciting finds was made by Steve Joul when he found a blackbird nest near the ground at the back of the tree on which nest box number 8 was hanging.

We continued working till about 1.20pm when we adjourned for lunch and a piece of Christmas cake. We had surveyed the nest boxes in Alwoodley Plantation, the boxes on the path running north adjacent to the disused rugby pitch, and the nest boxes on Crag Lane behind the rugby clubhouse.

Our afternoon session

Five of us resumed work at about 2.30pm and surveyed the nest boxes along Crag Lane from the rugby club to the picnic area, and then started to make our way down the Meanwood Valley Trail. surveying and cleaning nine nest boxes – eight tit boxes and one robin box.

The robin box contained a tit nest and leaves on top of it suggesting that a squirrel had used it for roosting. Of the tit boxes, seven contained a nest, and one contained moss which looked very fresh suggested that it may have been put there this year, even though it would be early for tits to start nesting.

One of the striking features which we always find in tit nests is the use of man-made materials – probably the covering of green, yellow or orange tennis balls – to make the nest.

A propos of nothing we found these excellent examples of fungi this afternoon.

We finished work at 4.35 as it was getting too dark to see.

In summary, during today’s survey we found that all the tit boxes were used. The nesting material in some tit boxes was dry, but in some it was very wet indeed – perhaps not surprising in view of the recent months of seemingly relentless heavy rain. Fortunately, today we spruced up twenty one nest boxes for this year’s broods.

Several of the nests contained droppings, indicating that the nest box had been used for roosting, as nesting birds do not defecate in the nest and clean out droppings from chicks.

Thank you to everyone who helped with today’s workparty!

To read more, have a look at tomorrow’s blog entry for day two of our annual nest box survey and clean.

Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one morning a month to carry out various jobs, and we also put on educational events.  We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to make new friends and enjoy getting out in the woods.