Saturday the 24th January 2026: the Annual Nestbox spring clean and survey (part 1).

As you walk along Crag Lane, wander through Alwoodley Crag Plantation (the area north of Crag Lane between King Lane and the rugby club), or hike along the Meanwood Valley Trail between the picnic area and Seven Arches, you will see an assortment of nest boxes.

These were put up by Friends of Adel Woods under Steve Joul’s tutelage from 2010 onwards. In all we have put up forty one and in each year since 2011 (except for 2021) we have surveyed them, cleaned them out, and repaired them where necessary.

We clean them out because tits and nuthatches (the birds which are most likely to use our nest boxes) don’t re-use old nests. We know this because we were not able to survey the nest boxes in 2021 due to Covid, and when we surveyed them in 2022 (ie to see how the birds had fared in the 2020 and 21 breeding seasons) we found new nests had been built on top of the previous year’s nests!

Whilst the birds can clearly get by if the nest boxes are not cleaned out, we often find that the old nests are full of mites or fleas, or that the old nesting material is very wet and rotten. Frequently, the nest box may contain bird droppings. It is therefore a good idea to give the birds a fresh start each nesting season.

By the way, if we find droppings in the nest box, it is a sign that the nest box has been used for roosting by adult birds outside the nesting season. Birds do not defecate in the nest during the breeding season. In fact, the parents take away the chicks droppings.

Today was the first day of our 2026 survey.

Saturday morning

The weather forecast for this weekend was pretty dire. Nevertheless, we had an excellent turnout of six “Friends” and we set off into the woods with our ladders and equipment at about 10.15 am.

This morning we surveyed, cleaned and refurbished the nest boxes in Alwoodley Crags Plantation, starting with nest boxes 17 and 5, and finishing at 12.30 pm

Most of the tit boxes had been used. but neither of the two robin boxes had been used – presumably because our local robins can find plenty of natural nesting sites.

Great tits and blue tits make very similar nests from moss, grass, dog hair, and man made fibres which seem to come from tennis balls. You can see white and red fibres in the photograph above. In other nests we found yellow, green and even blue man-made fibres.

It is not unusual to find an unhatched egg in the nest. Bearing in mind that great tits lay a clutch of seven to nine eggs on average (according to the BTO), it is likely that all the other eggs hatched and the chicks fledged.

Other things we might find in our nest boxes are clothes moth larvae, wax moth larvae, other insects, spiders and slugs.

As can be seen from the photographs, despite the forecast of rain all day we had a perfect morning for surveying our nest boxes

Saturday afternoon

In the afternoon, we had a team of four and we completed surveying the nest boxes along Crag Lane, and then made our way down the Meanwood Valley Trail from the picnic area to Adel Pond.

We finished work at about 4.15 pm by which time we had made our way down to, and surveyed, nest box 35.

Please read our blog for details of the second day of our survey on Sunday the 25th January. A full report on our survey results will be included in a third blog post for the 28th January 2026.

About Friends of Adel Woods

We hope that you have enjoyed reading about our activities and would be delighted if you would like to join us.

Friends of Adel Woods were formed in 2009 to help maintain Adel Woods and encourage people to enjoy them. We meet one weekend morning a month to carry out various jobs or ”work parties”, and we also put on educational events such as bat walks, fungal forays and birdsong walks.

We are a very friendly group and welcome new members who want to help preserve our special woods, enjoy fresh air and exercise in the woods, and make new friends. 

If you would like to take part in our activities, keep an eye on our Home Page. 

You don’t need to book to come along to one of our work “parties”: just come along.

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