The joy of garden nesting

BTO Scotland’s Steve Willis and BTO Northern Ireland’s Stephen Hewitt share their passion for monitoring garden nests and pass on some tips for how to get involved in this rewarding activity.

NOTE: If you are new to nest monitoring and want to record the progress of a few garden nests and nest boxes then Nesting Neighbours is the ideal interface - it’s simple to use and provides some really nice feedback on how other people’s nests are doing too. If you already use Demography Online (as a ringer or Nest Record Scheme participant) then please continue to do so, signing up to NRS if necessary. The data from both systems go into the same underlying database and contribute to the statistics. These schemes collect information on breeding success which helps us to understand the impacts of factors such as climate change and food availability on the number of young produced, and the influence this then has on population trends. Participation is therefore very valuable as well as rewarding. Scientific studies have shown that, as long as observers are careful and follow the BTO's Code of Conduct, making several visits to a nest to record the contents does not increase the probability of it failing. It is completely legal to look inside a nest in England, Scotland and Wales as long as you do not touch the contents and the species is not included on the list of scarce protected birds. If, like Stephen, you are in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland, you must apply for a licence prior to monitoring a nest of any species. A separate licence is needed for photographing nests.

Steve: Since the Covid-19 lockdown, like many people I’ve been working from home. My home office has a view out over the garden, and I started noticing a female blackbird regularly visiting a particular evergreen shrub in the shade of a big holly tree. It looked like she was building a nest! I was aware of the Nesting Neighbours project and I wondered if I should give it a go, though I must admit I hadn’t done any nest monitoring before. A chat with Stephen (who is an old hand and infectiously enthusiastic) had me sold! I had a read of the guidance pages and then went out to take a look…


The Blackbird nest is in the coniferous shrub in the centre of the picture (Steve Willis).

The nest was about one metre off the ground in a dense coniferous shrub so to look down into it I needed to very carefully move a few small branches apart. Peering inside, I could see four beautiful speckled blue eggs! It felt like such a wonderful privilege to be getting such a close view. The female was off the nest at the time but I could hear the male singing somewhere nearby. I beat a hasty retreat and watched from the kitchen window. Reassuringly it wasn’t long before the female returned. I visited the nest again a few days ago - five days after my first visit - and this time the female was sitting tight, obviously incubating. I think I’m getting the hang of it!

I’m under strict orders from Stephen to follow the breeding attempt through, whatever happens. Nests fail naturally for a number of reasons, including predation, and this is a regular occurrence with early thrush nests. Information from all breeding attempts is important, not only the ones that succeed.

These Blackbird eggs are a beautiful speckled blue, but the colours can vary a bit (Steve Willis).

When I’m not doing various bird-related things, I enjoy a bit of woodwork, and although I already had one nest box up in the garden, I was inspired to make another out of some odds and ends. Here’s a short video of the build process. I might have put it up too late for anything to use it this year, but fingers crossed! If you want to have a go at building your own, the plans are here!

Stephen: Steve’s right, I am an old hand (though not that old, Steve!). I first got into nest recording about eight years ago when encouraged by the then BTO Northern Ireland Officer Shane Wolsey and Carl Barimore from BTO HQ. In a normal year I make regular visits to local patches in County Armagh. I absolutely love the process of searching for nests, tuning in to the subtleties of bird behaviour, song and call, and getting to know the types of places that different species favour. Every nest I find gives me a wee buzz and following a breeding attempt through to fledging is very satisfying! Of course it doesn’t have to be tricky at all - if you have tits nesting in your bird box then ‘nest finding’ is very straightforward!

Here’s a Song Thrush nest that I found. Note the hard, dry inner lining (like chipboard). The holly berries round the rim are a bit unusual, but apparently thrushes do occasionally decorate their nests (Stephen Hewitt).

I’d really encourage anyone who is considering garden nesting to give it a go. It is hugely enjoyable - absolutely - but remember you’ll also be collecting priceless information. By recording the number of eggs, fledglings and the outcome of nesting attempts, volunteers are helping to reveal how our wild birds are doing every year.

Many people start with a box, and monitoring these is straightforward if you have a nest box camera installed or if the lid can be removed. Just check the box every five days or so - easy! Before opening the box, give it a gentle tap to let anything inside know that you are coming, and then lift the lid just enough to see inside. Make a note of what you can see but take care never to touch eggs or chicks - if there is a bird incubating then simply replace the lid and come back later to count the contents. There are guidance notes here which give more detail.

If you enjoy nest monitoring (and I’m sure you will!) I’d really encourage you to ‘graduate’ to open nests, too. They are easier to find than you might imagine. You can sit quietly and watch the adults like Steve did, or carefully search trees, bushes and ivy. There are few things that compare with the thrill of pinpointing an open nest. Peering into a Dunnock’s nest at five recently-laid bright blue eggs takes some beating and provides vital information to help us understand how well this amber-listed species is breeding!


A Dunnock nest found by Stephen, near Lurgan, Co. Armagh in 2018.

Nest monitoring is a fantastic way to learn about bird behaviour, too. You’ll get to know the characteristics of each species, and you might notice differences between pairs. A particular male might have a characteristic song, with repeated phrases or mimicry. Some males sing throughout the breeding attempt, even whilst carrying food (male Blackcaps sometimes sing quietly while incubating!), whereas other males go very quiet once paired. Female behaviour can be interesting, too. They sometimes seem agitated when their eggs are about to hatch, giving repeated alarm-calls, even when seemingly undisturbed.

Nesting also throws up interesting questions; for instance why do female Song and Mistle Thrushes sometimes decorate the rims of their nests with berries and petals (see photo above)? And why would a female Whitethroat choose one of the decorated nests built by her mate, only to remove the decoration before laying?

Typically I monitor around 100 nests each year (my record is 117!) and for that reason I submit my data via the Demography Online interface. If you’re monitoring more than about twenty nests per year then this is probably the way to go, but for a smaller number of nests the Nesting Neighbours platform is ideal.

So there you have it - garden nest monitoring is really rewarding, hugely valuable, and you’ll learn a lot about ‘familiar’ birds through doing it. Go on - give it a go!

It's National Nest Box Week!

It is National Nest Box Week (NNBW) this week and our wild birds are starting to think about the coming breeding season. This year is the 20th year of NNBW, which aims to encourage everyone to put up nest boxes for birds and to raise awareness of their needs ahead of the breeding season. While our migratory birds are preparing for their journeys back to Britain and Ireland for the summer, lots of our resident species are already singing to affirm their territory, finding a mate and choosing a nest site.


Tiny Blue Tit chicks thinking food has just arrived. Photo by Lee Barber

Around half of all households feed birds, so while food can often be plentiful, the lack of suitable nesting sites can be a problem. Putting up a nest box can therefore provide a welcome boost for some species. Blue and Great Tit are the most-frequent users of nest boxes but there is an amazing variety of species that use boxes, and by providing a suitable box, you could encourage them to set up home in your garden. House Sparrow, Nuthatch, Starling, Swift, Stock Dove, Tawny Owl and Kestrel are among the species that need suitable nesting sites and providing a box could really help them and some of our other declining red or amber listed species. For more information on what boxes are suitable for which species, click here.


Tawny Owl chicks waiting for the next delivery of food. Photo by Lee Barber

When buying a nest box, one of the most important features that I look for is a removable lid. This aids cleaning the box at the end of the breeding season (cleaning can be done between 1st September - 31st January) but most importantly it means that the contents of the nest can be recorded. BTO volunteer Nest Recorders around Britain and Ireland record the number of eggs, fledglings and the outcome of nesting attempts, providing a wealth of information on how our wild birds are doing every year. Nest recorders are provided with a code of conduct to make sure that the nest is checked in the safest possible way, so valuable information is gathered without affecting the birds.


BTO nest recorder checking on a Blackbird nest. Photo by Lee Barber

Nest cameras are a very popular choice and this also means that you can record the contents without even leaving your living room. They are particularly useful for boxes which are usually placed quite high or are difficult to get to, like Tawny Owl and Swift.

So far this year we've only seen a few birds inspecting our boxes at BTO HQ in Norfolk. Nest recording isn't just about those species that use boxes though; there are already a few Collared Doves sitting on eggs and we've also seen a brood of Egyptian Goose goslings paddling up the river. It's only a matter of time before we find our first Blackbird nest of the year and then the tit species will start building. It's a very exciting time!

Egyptian Geese are one of the earliest breeders. Photo by Lee Barber

For more information on becoming a nest recorder, check out our Nest Record Scheme website.

The Joy of Nesting Birds

Hazel Evans writes:

This week (14th – 21st February) is the BTO’s 21st National Nest Box Week.  Each year we encourage anyone who is interested, to put up nest boxes locally. I’d like to delve in to some of the different aspects for why this is such a wonderful thing to do, and how we can make the most of them.

The first and most obvious reason is to give birds a place to raise their young. In areas of human habitation it can be harder for birds to find places to nest, so putting up a nest box is a good way to ensure there is somewhere for the birds to use. There are many external factors which may affect the outcome of a nesting attempt, but we can offer them a good place to start. You may also choose to put out some appropriate nesting material in the nearby trees and bushes, or grow some plants to encourage insects. Non-native plants in gardens have been found to be a potential detriment to our local birds, they do not provide as much food, because non-native plants may not be able to host as many caterpillars as native plants, so this may be something to consider.
 

Robin feeding it's young. Photo by John Harding

The second reason why putting up a nest box can be important is monitoring. One of the BTO’s strongest assets is the data it has collected through organising monitoring schemes, and the Nest Record Scheme (NRS) is no exception. Now running for over 75 years, close to two million records of nesting birds throughout the UK have been sent in for over 200 species. This includes data from open nesting birds and nest boxes, both of which are highly valuable. As long as the NRS Code of Conduct is adhered to, we can safely record the progress of nesting attempts by counting the number of eggs and chicks and recording the outcome of the attempt and submitting data to the NRS.

Blue Tit fledgling. Photo by Christine M Matthews

The third reason I value nest boxes very highly, is the intrigue and excitement they can provide. Anyone can put up a nest box and monitor what’s inside it and in turn benefit from watching the behaviour of the birds. Interactions with the natural world have been shown to help relieve depression, anxiety and stress. We are living in a time where it is easy to lose touch with the natural world and many children aren’t getting experiences with nature; having a nest box in your garden is an inspiring way to learn about the natural world. Monitoring nests is not something that should be taken lightly but with the knowledge that the data is going to a good cause, it's something we can experience great joy from.

Now is the time when garden birds are just starting to prospect nesting sites in preparation for the approaching spring, so the sooner you can get a box up the better, whether you build it yourself or buy it from the garden centre. There are many bird species which use nest boxes, so if you have a bit more space then you may want to put up a larger nest box, for a Kestrel or owls.

Once used, it is a great idea to clean out old nests the following winter to allow for a fresh start in the spring. To comply with legislation, nests should only be cleaned out between 1 August and 31 January.

Nest Recording Taster Day, Glamorgan

‘Fledgemore’ is a new nest recording group in Glamorgan. Established in 2015, its members (Andy Bevan, Trevor Fletcher, Dan Jenkins-Jones, Wayne Morris and Graham Williams) have only been nest recording for a few years but, as well as finding and monitoring their own nests, one of their ambitions is to increase the number of local recorders contributing to the BTO’s Nest Record Scheme (NRS). They’ve written this blog about one of the ways they’re doing that.

Nest recorders will tell you that finding and then monitoring nests for the NRS is one of the most challenging, exciting and fulfilling experiences in birding. There’s something new to learn every year, there’s the thrill of finding a new nest and there’s the satisfaction in knowing that you’re gathering vital data for the BTO’s Ringing and Nest Recording Team that will inform birds’ long-term conservation.

There has been a welcome increase in the number of nest records submitted from across Britain & Ireland in recent years. An increase that has been reflected in the totals from our home county of Glamorgan. Up until 2006, barely 100 records a year were being sent from here to the BTO. In 2015, that figure had risen to almost 800. But, when we scratched beneath the surface, we found that there were no more than eight or nine birders regularly contributing nest records from Glamorgan. We’re sure other regions have a similar situation.

Blackbird chicks close to fledging at Rudry (Photo: Dan Jenkins-Jones)

If you’re new to nest recording you can learn a lot about how to find and safely monitor the nests of various species from books and online articles, but nothing beats a first-hand experience in the field with other nest recorders. This is how we learnt to find our first nests and it gave us the leg up we needed. With this mind, we trialled a ‘Nest Record Scheme Taster Day’ at Rudry Common, north of Cardiff, in 2016 in an attempt to increase the number of local recorders and put the Scheme on a more sustainable footing in the county. Despite having no more than five seasons’ nest recording experience ourselves, we felt we had sufficient knowledge to be able to share the basic skills with newcomers and to hopefully enthuse and encourage them to take up nest recording. Five birders took part in that event, two of whom are now members of Fledgemore with 130+ nest records gathered between them so far in 2017! Encouraged by our experiences of this ‘Taster Day’, we held another at Rudry on 14 May this year.

Taster Day 2 started with a short indoor session where we presented the participants with their free hazel ‘tapping stick’ and ‘mirror on a stick’, kindly donated by the Rudry Common Trust and both essential tools of the nest recorder’s trade, which they learnt to use during the day. We introduced them to the NRS Code of Conduct, to some basic nest finding techniques and then we were soon out in the field for six hours of ‘nesting’.

Using a mirror on a stick to examine nests (Photo: Graham Williams)

Seeing a bird’s nest which contains eggs or chicks can be that spark which ignites an individual’s fascination with nest recording – especially if it’s a nest you’ve found yourself. To ensure we’d be able to provide that experience, Trevor recced the area in advance of the event and found a nice variety of nests to show everybody.

We spent the morning working through woodland, finding a number of nests: a Blackbird nest with chicks close to fledging; an active Goldcrest nest and, later, a predated one; Great Spotted Woodpecker with chicks; Song Thrush and a Wren on eggs; a Woodpigeon nest which had sadly failed at the chicks stage; a Blue Tit in a nestbox and Coal Tit and Great Tit with chicks nesting in natural cavities, both of whom enabled Trevor to show off his skills with an endoscope. A number of old nests were found too, which are useful in showing participants the likely places to look for nests in future.

Two of the participants trying out the art of ‘tapping’ for the first time (Photo: Andy Bevan)

Late morning, we left the woodland and moved out onto to Rudry Common in search of a suite of different species. A Linnet nest in gorse, which contained chicks a few days before the Taster Day, was sadly empty, probably lost to predation. Nevertheless, it enabled the participants to get a feel for where to find their own Linnet nests in future. A beautiful Long-tailed Tit nest with chicks, also in gorse, was up next, followed by a well concealed Meadow Pipit with four eggs.

The highlight of the day for most was probably a Willow Warbler nest with eggs, described by one participant as a ‘nest on its side’. It’s such a simple, yet beautiful, construction and superbly camouflaged. Finding one is always a thrill, and yet, with the right fieldcraft and knowing how the female’s off-nest call will help you, finding a Willow Warbler nest can be quite easy.


Willow Warbler nest on Rudry Common (Photo Dan Jenkins-Jones)

Best of all, some of these nests were found by the participants, either by ‘watching birds back’ to their nests or, on one occasion, a Blackbird on four eggs was found by gently ‘tapping’ suitable habitat with a hazel stick which gently flushed the sitting bird. Finding these nests and recording their contents generated a lot of excitement amongst us all. For the participants, it proved very quickly that they could find their own nests, and for us as leaders it was great to be able to show that the tips we’d shared with everybody actually work!

The day was rounded off with another short indoor session where we shared information on how to plan nest visits and what information to gather at the nest: egg or chick counts; nest location and habitat; chicks’ feather structure; the nest’s ‘outcome’ etc.  Finally we ‘crowned’ Tara, one of the participants who found three nests as the ‘New Nest Finder of the Day’. Tara went on to justify her crown by returning to Rudry Common immediately after the event to try and find a Garden Warbler for her Year List, and found another Willow Warbler nest on her own!


Tara was crowned ‘Nest Finder of the Day (Photo: Rob Williams)

An enjoyable day all round and we’ve heard from some of the participants that they’ve already been finding their own nests. Fingers crossed that some, if not all of them turn out to be fully-fledged nest recorders in years to come. And of course, we found some new nests on the day to add to our own monitoring for the Scheme. The BTO is keen to encourage ringers to contribute data to the Nest Record Scheme and, where possible, we are revisiting nests to ring pulli to further contribute data to the Ringing and Nest Recording Team. 

We’d highly recommend other nest recorders hosting similar events in their own regions to build up the numbers of local recorders. You definitely don’t need years of experience behind you, you’ll introduce others to a fascinating aspect of birding, help the Nest Record Scheme get even more records and you’ll enjoy every minute of it.

Two broods are better than one

Hazel Evans, NRS secretary writes:

Studies in Europe demonstrate that Great Tits have the potential to produce two broods per season; a recent study of populations in The Netherlands showed that over 50% of birds were double-brooded in the 1960s, though this number has been declining as the climate warms. Despite this observation, records of double-brooded Great Tits are still relatively scarce in the UK – is this because it is truly a rare behaviour or because we’re so used to thinking of them as single-brooded that we don’t often check our boxes after the first chicks have left?

Robin and Moya Myerscough from Norfolk have been keeping a very detailed log of the comings and goings at their garden in nest box during 2016. A female Great Tit began laying on 6th April and completed a clutch of nine, which hatched on the 27th. Unfortunately two chicks died but the remaining seven fledged successfully at 08.15 on 17th May.

Female Great Tit collecting nesting material. Photo taken by Jill Packenham

These observations constitute a great record for the BTO’s Nest Record Scheme but nothing seemed particularly out of the ordinary. However, by 2 pm an adult was bringing in fresh nesting material and it laid the first egg of a second clutch the very next day.  This in itself is unusual, but a gap of less than 24 hours between attempts seems amazing. Great Tit fledglings are heavily dependent on their parents for about a week after leaving the nest but it is possible the female was able to juggle these responsibilities with laying of the second clutch, given incubation does not commence until the penultimate egg is laid.

Great Tit removing a fecal sac. Photo taken by David Waistell

In truth, while it seems rapid, we don’t really know just how this observation compares to the typical interval between broods, but the widespread use of nest box cameras has the potential to significantly increase the amount of information we are able to collect. Whether you own a camera or not, it’s worth keeping a close eye on your nest boxes over the next couple of weeks to check for second broods – remember to submit records of any attempts you find  to  the Nest Record Scheme or Nest Box Challenge.

Happening in a box near you

National Nest Box Week kicks off every year on Valentine’s Day. It’s a week where the BTO encourage members of the public to put up nest boxes in their gardens. Our garden birds are just starting to prospect nesting sites in preparation for the approaching spring, so the sooner you can get a box up the better, whether you build it yourself or buy it from the garden centre.

Great Tit - David Waistell

There are increasing concerns that the availability of suitable nesting cavities is falling as old trees are felled and houses are repaired, so erecting a box could make a real difference to a pair of birds in your garden. However, the real conservation value of erecting a box is the opportunity it provides to safely record the progress of the nesting attempt, looking inside at intervals to count the number of eggs and chicks and submitting data to one of the BTO’s nest monitoring schemes. The benefits of your monitoring efforts will be felt well beyond the confines of your garden, benefiting national bird populations by helping conservationists to understand the impacts of climate change and urbanisation on the number of young reared and therefore, ultimately, on population trends.

Blue Tit nest - Hazel Evans

Nest Box Challenge  (NBC) is an on-line monitoring survey focussed on gardens, with the ability to record data on both box-nesting birds, such as Blue Tits, and open-nesting species, such as Blackbirds and Woodpigeons.  The Nest Record Scheme (NRS) collects more detailed data on all nesting species across a wide variety of habitats. People are understandably wary of approaching nests, but there is a very large body of research showing that the contents can be examined without a negative impact on the outcome of the attempt, as long as the guidelines set out in our NRS Code of Conduct are followed.

The number of people nest recording in the UK has never been higher, with almost 1,000 volunteers monitoring over 45,000 nesting attempts in 2014 alone through NBC and NRS. The Nest Record Scheme is now in its 76th year and in that time over 1.35 million nest records from 232 different species have been sent in, creating an invaluable and unique record of the UK’s breeding birds. These data are used to generate annual trends in laying dates, the number of eggs produced and the number of chicks reared, which are published each year in the BTO’s BirdTrends report. By analysing nesting data in conjunction with survival data generated by bird ringing, we can assess the contribution that changes in the number of fledglings produced makes to national population trends.

Blue Tit fledgling - Tommy Holden

By far the most common inhabitants of our garden nest boxes are Blue Tits and Great Tits. They have adapted so well to living in our man-made constructions that we receive thousands of records every year; so do we really need any more? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes’, as the better the coverage, the more we can explore the degree to which birds responses to changes in the environment vary between regions and habitats. Your help is vital in continuing to build on this amazing dataset, so why not make 2015 the year you start monitoring nests?


By Hazel Evans, Nest Record Scheme secretary

Come Nest With Us at Birdfair

Now that ex-hurricane Bertha has dropped a few inches of rain across the Midlands, it must be time for the annual extravaganza that is Rutland Birdfair! This year the BTO stand (in Marquee 3) will be busy celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Nest Record Scheme, with expert nest recorders available on the stand all weekend to answer all your nesting questions and impart a few top tips on nest-finding. There will also be a mystery nest challenge for anyone brave enough to give it a go, so why not drop in and say hi if you're passing.

The skeleton of the BTO stand yesterday...

...and the finished product...

...complete with mystery nests to identify

If you time it right, there will also be a Nest Record Scheme 75th birthday cake cut at 11am on Friday, a Breeding Bird Survey 20th birthday cake cut at 11am on Sunday and BTO President Chris Packham will be signing copies of his new book '100 Things That Caught My Eye' on the stand at 4pm on Friday and 2pm on Saturday.

Also come and say hi to more of the Demog Blog team on the ringing demonstration. This year we'll be back behind Marquee 7 by the Red Entrance, so why not come and say hello!

Is it all over?

Mark Lawrence writes:

We have now reached that part of the season. After the long haul of some incredibly dedicated field work, the time has come when some nest recorders start to wind down. The dawn chorus is now a shadow of its former self and with each passing day there are fewer nests to find. The days of Long-tailed Tit nests in open-mouthed bramble are long gone. The crows' nests lie empty, hidden deep within the leaf canopy of dense trees. Gull chicks are now leaving their nests and some Cuckoos are already in Africa. Our beloved Swifts will soon be leaving our shores and their screaming summer song will be missed.

But it isn't over yet, our team is still getting out there and we continue to nest record. We still have some exciting nesting ahead. We still have the second brood of Reed Warblers to find, we have a Sedge Warbler that should be hatching soon. Tree Pipit, Whinchat, Lesser Redpoll and Stonechat are up on the moors feeding young in the nest. And even better, Mark Penney made a visit last Saturday (19th) and found a new Meadow Pipit with eggs! At our coastal location we have Wren and Yellowhammer on eggs and armed with our Schedule 1 licence, we are right in the middle of conducting an exciting breeding study on the Cirl Bunting. So far we have found 10 nests; six of these have fledged, one brood that I ringed last week just needs one more visit to the nest to record its outcome and we have two still on eggs. These are second brood nests from previously found pairs and one that is building. We have by no means finished yet. We have a trip planned next week for a second brood of Nightjar that could take us well into August.

Cirl Bunting nest and adult male (Josh Marshall)

Locating nests at this time of year can be more difficult and more challenging than earlier in the year when the vegetation is less dense, but the additional effort will add valuable data on late nesting species and timing of events to the Nest Record Scheme database. We may be coming to the end of the nesting season as we reach high summer once again, and our fast awakening autumn yawns its vibrant colours, but there are still many key species to monitor.

I was watching a young Robin just the other day, and I could see its adult plumage beginning to show through. Christmas came to mind, a stark reminder that the winter will soon be upon us and we will long for the nesting season once again. But then I think and smile, it is still the nesting season, and I will enjoy what's left... before the dark winter nights drop on us once again.

Nunnery nesting in 2014: off the mark!

We’re fast approaching the time of year where I grab my trusty nesting stick, Carl Barimore reaches for his mirror on a pole and Mike Toms straps on his endoscope as we head down to The Nunnery reserve to start looking for nests to monitor. We generally begin searching in late February, when the Long-tailed Tits begin to pair up and hang suspiciously around likely nesting sites (here typically gorse or bramble) and the first grebes, Mute Swan and Coot start gathering material. However, we’re always on the lookout for opportunities before that, and one was provided on the 15^th January by our colleague, Neil Calbrade, who spotted a sitting Collared Dove in the Nunnery garden, the nest wedged between the branches of a  yew about 3m off the ground. This morning was the first chance I had to check it and the bird flew on my approach to reveal a single white egg; the ‘standard’ clutch size is two, but clutch sizes of early attempts made by multi-brooded species are often smaller (single-brooded species show the opposite pattern).

The typical view of a Collared Dove nest is the underside of a twiggy platform, several metres off the ground in a tree or shrub. It is almost always possible to see the adult sitting from the ground. Photo by  B Besley

It may be tempting to blame the unseasonably warm weather for this apparently early attempt, but Collared Dove is actually the only species in the BTO Nest Record Scheme (NRS) dataset that has been recorded as breeding in every month of the year (Fig 1), although if as many recorders focused on Mallard, it may well reveal the same pattern.

Number of NRS Collared Dove records for which an accurate laying date can be calculated by month in which first egg was laid

That said, fewer than 30 January attempts are logged in the NRS database, dating back to the mid-1960s, and this is the fifth nesting Collared Dove nest we’ve been informed of in the past fortnight (the third in Thetford alone), which suggests they may have made an early start.  It is impossible to compare years without first collecting the data, however; analyses are orders of magnitude more powerful than anecdote when it comes to influencing Government policy on climate change, so it is vital your records are submitted to a national nest-recording scheme.

So, why not make 2014 the year that you register with the Nest Record Scheme and get involved in nest recording – it’s great fun, you’ll learn a huge amount about the birds around you and, vitally, it provides information to support conservation efforts that can’t be gathered any other way.

Information about any species, no matter how common, in any habitat, be it your garden or a remote island, are of value as long as you can see inside to count the eggs and chicks. Looking in nests is perfectly legal as long as you don’t handle the contents, although a licence is need to monitor nests of Schedule 1 species and be sure to follow the NRS Code of Conduct

We’ll be monitoring the progress of our Collared Dove and about 400 other nests across The Nunnery over the course of this season, from Wrens to Mute Swans; we’ll keep you posted on our progress and we look forward to hearing about yours.

Dave Leech, Head of the Nest Record Scheme

http://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/u15/downloads/publications/legislation_and_good_practice.pdf

The future’s bright - the future’s green

I remember the exact day that I became hooked on birds. I was four years old and my family had just moved to North Norfolk. My Dad, Tony, a biology teacher who is interested in all things natural history, went with a colleague to see a male Hen Harrier that had been roosting on Kelling Heath and I tagged along. I’d been looking at birds in the garden for a year or two previously (and have the check-list, full of terrible spelling mistakes and even more horrendous misidentifications to prove it), but this was definitely the point of no return; fast forward 35 years and I am now a qualified ringer and keen nest recorder who has the privilege of working on birds for a living as a BTO staff member.

Male Hen Harrier - the species responsible for Dave writing this post. Copyright Martin Bennett

  

The path from hobby to career was fuelled by many things. The proximity of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s Cley reserve, just four miles north of my home, did no harm in terms of reinforcing my interest, as did the endless streams of high quality documentaries, particularly those featuring the soporific tones of David Attenborough, which were compulsory viewing in my house. It was people who made the real difference, though – parents (my Mum, Barbara, still collects Blackbird colour-ring resighting data for me), teachers (Dave Horsley and Ralph Wiggins deserve special mention) and friends (Gav Horsley and Nick Acheson in particular) who tutored me and, equally importantly, transported me to the local hotspots. OK, so I didn’t have access to the wonders of the internet, but then I didn’t have the distractions of it either.

Dave's Mum Barbara has been collecting colour-ring resighting data on individually marked Blackbirds in her garden almost every day since March 2007

But this post isn’t about me as I’m rapidly becoming the past; it’s about the future, and that future is looking a little greener. A few days ago, Lorraine Miller directed me to an article on the wonderful A Focus On Nature website, an essential networking tool for any aspiring young conservationist. The piece was a focus feature on five naturalists, aged between 9 and 13, including Lorraine’s daughters Abby and Evie. I already knew that Team Miller were contributing to the BTO’s Nest Record Scheme, but I was still amazed at the wealth of other surveys that were mentioned. Four of the five folk highlighted are already training to ring, including prolific bloggers Toby Carter and Findlay Wilde, or seeking trainers (and the photo of the fifth, Harley Wilde, sees him holding a bird at a ringing demo) while Garden BirdWatch, BirdTrack and the Winter Thrush Survey all feature.

Ringing demonstrations are a great way of sparking the conservation interest of the next generation, whether they go on to be ringers or not

This makes me a bit of a late-starter. While I was birding at four, I twitched away my teens and it wasn’t until I hit my mid-twenties that I started actually making a real contribution to conservation by participating in surveys. These guys have got a decade on me already, and most of them didn’t have the luxury of doorstep nature reserves or teachers with time to spend on after-hours activities. These are fast-tracked conservationists and, with green issues seemingly at their lowest ebb on the political agenda, we need them now more than ever.
Dave Leech
Head of BTO Nest Record Scheme

Marsh Tit population crash

The NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) Marsh Tit project in west Cambridgeshire was outlined in a previous Demog Blog post in 2010, and is now in its 10th year. But after a decade of stability 2012-13 has seen a dramatic fall in the population, and ringing has enabled us to understand how and why this has happened.

Almost all of the Marsh Tits in the main study population are colour-ringed, and the number of territories in the four main study woods has typically been around 30-32 each spring, with about 15% of those being occupied by lone males. But in 2013 the number of occupied territories has fallen by a third to just 19, and more than a quarter of those did not have a female present.

Adult survival from the previous spring was only 44%, which was among the lowest recorded since the study began and some way short of the average 51%, but this alone could not explain the sudden drop in population. The main problem was juvenile recruitment, linked to the very poor weather during the breeding season in May 2012. In line with results for other tits shown by the Nest Record Scheme (click here for 2012 premilinary results), the Marsh Tits also seemed to struggle to rear young during 2012 as persistent rain hampered foraging. Things were so bad that we had the first ever record of adults abandoning a nest mid-way through incubation.

Reduced productivity, and probably also reduced fledgling survival, was apparent in the much reduced number of juveniles recruited into the population during our autumn trapping period, when I catch and colour-ring most of the new birds. During a typical year I expect to find 50-60 juveniles in the four woods between August to October, but in autumn 2012 the number was just 21. With so little recruitment on top of lower than average adult survival, there were not enough juveniles to replace adult mortality and maintain the breeding population in 2013. The gender imbalance in the surviving birds indicated that mortality was especially severe among females, which are at the bottom of the pecking order.

That extreme weather and a single poor breeding season could almost halve our breeding pairs was quite worrying. Marsh Tit is a Red-listed species that has declined nationally by 72% since the 1960s, and our study shows that random events such as the very wet spring 2012 can be a severe blow to fragmented populations of birds that may already be struggling. With 2013 shaping up to be another relatively poor breeding season for tits, the previously large and stable population of Marsh Tits in the Cambridgeshire study may take years to recover, if it ever does.

Thanks to Richard Broughton for writing this post and for the photos.

How do you like your eggs? Frozen

The start of each year sees some pretty intense competition between BTO staff – who will be first to see a rarity on the Nunnery Lakes (generally Nick Moran), who will have the highest list at the end of January (Nick, again), who will catch the most Siskins (Allison Kew, with Greg Conway or Graham Austin a close second), etc, etc. From my point of view, the greatest accolade is the first active nest found of the year and it’s fair to say that I’m usually in the running, poking about in gorse from the end of February for nascent Long-tailed Tit nests or scouring the rivers and reedbeds for early Mallard and Moorhen clutches. The ideal target species would be Crossbill, our earliest breeding songbird, were it not for the fact that to nests right at the top of tall pine trees and I don’t exactly have the best head for heights (or the physique for climbing, these days).

Spot the nest

This year, however, I have been kicked into touch by BTO Press Officer Paul Stancliffe, who located the first Thetford nest of 2013 before I’ve even started looking. On 19th January, amidst the snow covered wastelands of the town centre, Paul spotted a Collared Dove sitting on a nest lodged at the top of a telegraph pole. The bird was still sitting the next day, and on the 22nd he was able to see into the uncovered nest from his upstairs bedroom window, glimpsing the top of at least one egg. It is now the 24th and the bird is still incubating in the sub-zero temperatures.

First nest record of the year for Thetford

Collared Doves are extremely opportunistic breeders. Data from the Nest Record Scheme show that nesting has been recorded in all months of the year (sample size c. 4,200 records). The peak month in terms of clutch initiation (the laying of the first egg) is April (Figure 1), and the main season is typically from March to July. This is earlier than Woodpigeon which again can be found nesting in most months, but exhibits a peak in laying between July and September.

Figure 1

The current cold snap doesn’t really seem to present much of an opportunity, however, and I fear that the outcome of this attempt is unlikely to be positive. We shall continue monitoring their progress to find out.

Dave Leech

Eggstremely long season

The breeding season starts in earnest in March, you might expect that by the beginning of August, most species would have finished nesting, giving both parents and their offspring time to grow or replace feathers and accumulate fat reserves in preparation for long migratory journeys or harsh winter conditions in the UK. However, volunteers taking part in the Nest Record Scheme are still reporting active nests of many species. It has been a terrible breeding season, with ringers catching very few young birds at Constant Effort Sites and migration hotspots, so these late broods could provide a vital boost to juvenile numbers at the eleventh hour.

After recent flooding destroyed the majority of breeding attempts, we thought that the Reed Warblers at our CES site in Norfolk would give up and move south, but 50 pairs were able lay one more clutch of eggs in a last ditch attempt to make their 9,000km round trip to Africa more worthwhile. The latest chicks will not be leaving the nest until the 26th August.

Yellowhammer

Many nest recorders still have Swallow and House Martin chicks to ring, with young broods reported this week by observers in North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Suffolk and birds sitting on eggs in East Lothian, Dorset and Devon, the latter close to a pair of Spotted Flycatchers with young still in the nest. Some resident species are still nesting too, including an incubating Yellowhammer found in Cambridgeshire on Tuesday, Reed Bunting and Tree Sparrow broods soon to be ringed in Suffolk and Meadow Pipit, Stonechat, Dartford Warbler and Linnet with large chicks this week in Devon.

 

Reed Warbler

Add to this the traditional late nesters such as Woodpigeon, for which the peak of the nesting season occurs in August and September, Collared Dove, Stock Dove, Barn Owl, Moorhen and Coot, and there are still many more nest recording opportunities to be had in 2012! Contact the Nest Records Organiser for more information.

Thanks to Dave Leech for the photos

Bird-brained

People often mention how amazing it is that, as soon as they leave the nests, birds seem to know exactly what they're doing. They can fly--many migrating long distances within a few months of hatching--and most are capable of finding their own food within a matter of days, unlike useless humans.

So, it's refreshing to know that sometimes, even birds can get it wrong. The BTO's Nest Record Scheme has received two reports this spring of birds that get an A for effort, but an F- for design, when it comes to building their nests.

Within days of nest recorder Graham Uney putting up a sparrow terrace, consisting of three nesting compartments in a row, a pair of Great Tits started building inside. Unfortunately, this particular pair couldn't seem to make their mind up which was the most desirable chamber and ended up building nests in all three, laying two eggs in two of them and a single egg in the third. Even if the male lends a hand during incubation, a degree of chivalry previously unheard of in the Great Tit world, they're still going to need to find a baby-sitter.

What number was it again? At least this episode confirms that Great Tits can't count either...

Not to be outdone, a Long-tailed Tit pair monitored by Jim Hodson spent a good few weeks constructing their intricately woven nest using moss, lichen and spider webs, but failed to spot a minor flaw in their design - they forgot to put a hole in it! Cue a hasty reconstruction job six inches away, using the old nesting material.


A Long-tailed Tit nest is a distinctive dome with, usually, a hole near the top (left in this picture).

We're just as interested to hear about birds getting it right, so if you've found a nest that you can see into to monitor, please contact us at nrs@bto.org for a free Starter Pack, or send us the details on-line at www.bto.org/nbc

Dr Dave Leech
Head of the Nest Record Scheme

Say it with flowers!

Despite the cold winter and recent wet weather, birds are still making good progress with their nests and romance is obviously in the air. Nest recorder Frank Mawby recently watched a male Starling carrying a purple crocus flower to its nest. While we can’t rule out the possibility that he had forgotten an important anniversary, previous studies have suggested that Starlings are adept at using herbal remedies to combat parasite infestations in the nest, often incorporating vegetation in the lining.

Long-tailed Tits seem to have been less affected by the cold winter than many of us feared - here at The Nunnery most have now built their beautiful lichen and spider web nests and are in the process of lining them with feathers. ‘Our’ Song Thrushes and Blackbirds are just starting to lay, but the first reports of chicks are starting to arrive and many Robins are now busy feeding their broods.



With so much happening, it’s a great time to be out looking for nests. If you’ve found one, get in touch with us at nrs@bto.org and we’ll send you a Nest Record Scheme Starter Pack so that you can monitor it, or you can go on-line to take part in Nest Box Challenge www.bto.org/nbc.