Quantock Hills Blog
Please ring me.
- Andy's been finding out about the birds and the bees
Posted by Andy Harris on 23 May 2011
I knew last Tuesday was going to be special when I followed a Peacock down the track that goes past Triscombe Quarry, not something you see everyday.
Jen and I have been monitoring our nest boxes for over a month now and have begun to crunch a few figures. The first Blue Tit egg was laid on 12th April in Holford Combe and the first Pied Flycatcher egg was laid on 27th April in both Holford and Hodders Combe. The trend within the regional study area is that egg laying seems to be anything up to a fortnight early, probably as a result of the very favourable spring weather.
Currently out of the 140 boxes we monitor 46 have been taken up by Great and Blue Tits whilst 22 are home to Pied Flycatchers. Other occupants have included bees, wasps and much to my delight hornets! In one box it seems that a Blue Tit and a small number of bees are happily living alongside one another which makes surveying the eggs and possible future young a bit scary.
However back to last Tuesday morning, I was heading to one of my Forestry Commission sites with bird ringing mentor Doug Miller to follow up on an inspection of a Tawny Owl box where I had previously found it contained two young owls. Much to my amazement our quiet and calm approach allowed us to not only get the two chicks but also the adult female. Adult Tawnys have a much earned reputation of being aggressive around their nesting sites but on this occasion we couldn’t have asked for a more co-operative female.
The purpose of ringing is to collect and provide good quality scientific information which requires purpose of mind to keep the handling of such an amazing species to a minimum. However once all the data had been written down I think it’s fair to say both Doug and I left the wood with an extra spring in our step and full of awe as this is an experience that doesn’t happen all that often.
In the 22 boxes containing Pied Flycatchers we are finding females incubating eggs or even putting the finishing touches to the nest building phase. However two boxes did contain young only a few hours old and too small to ring. Nevertheless I managed to ring something in the order of 100 (combined) Great Tits and Blue Tits and came away with just as many midge bites.
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