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Habitat Management News |
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Boxing clever |
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Providing nesting sites for birds in habitats which lack the right features can require some ingenious solutions. Wigwams for Bearded Tits Panurus biarmicus and shelters for terns have appeared recently in British Wildlife (9: 38-39 and 9: 314, respectively). Most readers will be familiar with the standard wooden nestbox constructed for hole-nesting birds, but not all birds of appropriate size find this design attractive. The Willow Tit Parus montanus excavates its own hole in rotten wood. For this reason it does not favour the standard nestbox. Jimmy Maxwell has developed a design, used in the Clyde Valley, Lanarkshire, based on a bark-covered plastic tube filled with wood shavings and an entrance hole packed with damp sawdust. The design had to fulfil a number of criteria in addition to being attractive to Willow Tits, including being cheap, easy to construct, lightweight, accessible for recording the outcome of nesting, and inconspicuous to people. The last criterion was necessary because the boxes were positioned about a metre from the ground in woodlands with public access. Sites used by nesting Willow Tits were in deciduous woodland, nearly all with some kind of waterbody nearby. Further details of the design and the success of this box can be found in BTO News 221 (March-April 1999) or by contacting Jimmy Maxwell on 01698 426476. |
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