It has been pretty busy here in my patch… trying to get all my nest box and cams sorted and working well for the season.
Some of my boxes are ones that I have had up for a couple of years in favourite positions that usually have nesters. Others I have adapted this year, to improve them. I am constantly looking for ways to enhance and improve the footage I can capture, as well as offering improved spaces for all my visitors. This year, I feel I have made further leaps forward both in the nesting spaces I am offering but also the cameras and set-ups within those.
I have created a new page on my website that shows all the cameras and links to both this year’s footage and any footage from the past. You can click to find out more about each. I have set up a Flickr set for each nest box and a YouTube Playlist. These will automatically update on these pages as I upload new pictures and videos. This helps me to keep everything up to date. When the nesting season kicks off, I like to have captured images and videos every day and this can take up most of my evenings, so I have to make it as streamlined as possible! You can click on these images below to visit the page and find out more or look for the Nest box 2014 tab on the front page of my website.
I have had a go at lining one of my nest boxes this year. I have lined the side-view box with clay and then pressed mud and moss into it, to make it look more natural. The great tits do not seem worried and are looking in…
I have also made my own box this year. It is a long rectangular box, but half of the inside houses the camera and cables. These are mounted behind a perspex window. I have also mounted a small light unit on the ceiling of the box to improve the image inside the box. I put the box up on the Sunday and the blue tits were checking it out on the Monday. I hope this low camera angle will give some great views if they choose to nest here!
My larger boxes will hopefully give me some new species to watch! The tawny box in the bridle path has a jackdaw pair that seem to be becoming pretty settles. The have brought in a lot of sticks and sent a lot of the day in there.
I am also getting visits to the Squirrel Studio… mainly by stock doves, as well as jackdaws, squirrels and stock doves visiting the other tawny box and the barn owl box. Let’s keep out fingers crossed for some great ‘Nest Enders’ stories this season!