More activity

Today's visit to Monks Wood to check the boxes was made in the mid morning with my Chinese friend Polly, who I wanted to introduce to nest box watching. The weather was overcast with a brisk breeze, predominantly northerly.  We both had binoculars so we could observe any activity from a polite distance, trying not to disturb any potential residents.

The map below is annotated with box numbers and symbols - ❉ = bird seen, ✢ = nest material seen.

Box 20 again showed immediate activity on arrival, but this time the bird that was in and out with nesting materials was a tree sparrow.
A great tit shot out of box 10 as we approached, clearly plenty of nesting materials inside.
Box 14 seems to have a resident, but it was too quick for confident identification, could have been a house sparrow.
We disturbed great tits out of boxes 1 and 6.
Of the other boxes, six showed clear evidence of nesting material inside, 16, 17, 19, 3, 2 and 7.  That leaves 8 boxes that show no evidence of occupation - yet!!!  Some of those are in ash trees that are only just starting to come into leaf, so there is little cover around them.

As we approached the Threshold on our way back to the car, we saw a blue tit shoot left towards the hedge, away from the threshold roof, so we backed up and waited and were rewarded by a pair of blue tits that were in and out of the box that is high on the Monks Wood side of the threshold.  We watched them for a few minutes, coming and going, so perhaps they have selected that box this year.

If you would like to find the boxes and send me sightings, please use the Google map to locate them. Click here goo.gl/DrwKES to access the map. Don't get too close and disturb the residents, please!