Topic: Fellow allotmenteers please build nest boxes!

[the_snail]

I am sorry if this is on the wrong thread. All allotment holders this is a request to you. If you have a shed why not put a nest box on it for say blue tits. Why not put a sparrow box on you eves of you house. The sparrow is a dying breed. If you have allot of trees then try a owl box. Why not a robin box? Allotments and publick parks are becoming the last haven for wildline in the urban environent. So lets help them to make the urban envirement there home as well!

(A bit of a gripe beware!!)

I am sick and tired of people having black paved front gardens! Ever lightly our song bird population is dying off! I was watching a blackbird bouncing backwards and forwards on our lawn (no he was not demented and no I do not live near celefield!) after worms for his chicks. I looked around our grove and out of 13 houses 7 of them where hard landscapes mostely blobk paving. Comeone folks stop the block paving and concrete. MORE GRASS ok it may mean you will need to get of ya glutamus maxamus for say 20 mins depending on the size of ya garden, BUT (no pun intended :D) it would be worth it! For you and the wildlife!

[the_snail]

PS BLACK PAVED  ::)

Block Paved sorry!  ::)

[maz]

Snail I put a box up years ago and finally this year a pair of tit (Charles and Camilla) moved in, stayed 2 days and they have gone again.  :(

Its a one bed bungalow in a quiet residential area with a veiw of the river ( if they stand on tip claw)  . What more do they want?  ::) ;Ds

[Mrs Ava]

We have a birdy box on our willow, and altho blue tits pop in and out, no takers as yet, so the 'For Let' sign stays.  We also have starlings nesting in our roof, again!  All of the gardens along our road are hard landscaped for car parking purposes, created when the houses were built, but some people, like me, still have half of the garden for plants.  I think it is the modern society we live in now - 2 or more cars per family, gotta park those petrol guzzlers somewhere, and with more traffic on the roads, tis safer on your garden!

[slugcatcher]

I have 3 boxes in my garden.

No rent
No council tax
No bills what so ever
and free food on the door step

But no takers they must have better offers else where

Ron

[Marianne]

Hi Maz, ours is also a one bedroom bungalow and we live between two rivers.  One natural and one man made (to feed the people of London and Essex).  ;D

It is very rural and I believe there is no need to build nests as there are so many trees around here.  Or would one still have to put them up Snail??? ::)

[caz 406]

There was an article recently in Gardeneres World (I think) magazine about how to make boxes from just one plank of wood. It gave details about different size/shape of hole required for different types of bird.
My Dad was on a bit of a roll after he read it so now the whole family has got one! We had a pair of bluetits move in within a week - it's lovely watching them.

[Eliza252]

I have two hawthorne trees on my allotment - they are not very big though. Could I realistically put a bird box in them? Would I not disturb the birds when I was working on the allotment. I am keen to encourage any kind of wildlife - especially ones that eat bugs! so any suggestions would be v. welcome!  ;D

[Obelixx]

I think feeding them is more important than housing them.  When we bought this house 12 yrs ago there were about 3 pairs each of sparrows and tits nesting in holes in the walls.   I put up feeders straightaway.  It took them 3 yrs to recognise what the feeders were. 

In between times, we have planted assorted shrubs and trees to provide cover and shelter.   Two years before repairing the walls and thus evicting the lodgers, I put up a dozen bird boxes.  They are all still empty but we now have about 30 pairs of sparrows nesting in the eaves, a whole colony of blue and great tits whose families all come to feed and we have attracted assorted finches, other tits, wrens, blackbirds, tree creepers, dunnocks and black redstarts who come from nearby woods to feed all year.   Costs me a fortune but is worth it.   I have very few insect pests.   

[maz]

I put mine up because I live in Liverpool. Im in a fairly leafy part but I still wanted to encourage the birds into my backyard. My house backs onto a field where the sparrows all congregate. The field was overgrown and full of wild life, including urban foxes, but its been cleared for building.   >:( :(  so Im just doing my bit for nature.

Also I want to see the birds so its as much for me as it is for them.

Also I think I may have become a landlord again as hubby has just seen activity in the bungalow.  ;)  ;D     

[the_snail]

I am glad to see we all have nestboxes :D I also have a nest box but nothing in there yet. We might get a late nesting pair.

[Mothy]

We have a box or 2 in our back garden. Blue Tits always looked at one in particular but it is now occupied by Bumble bees!!

[wardy]

I have a newly erected shed on my plot and will put a nesting box on it.  I have a lovely hedge on two sides of my plot for them to nest in too.  The allotment is alive with birds, including pheasants  :) and I love to listen to them as I go about my plot.  I have lots of birds in my garden at home too and when we repaired a collapsed brick wall we left spaces for birds to nest in and we had a wren in it last year and a robin this year.  The bricks had eroded in places and it looked lovely so rather than over repair it I thought it best to leave some gaps.  When birds aren't nesting we put night lights in them  :)

[Mrs Ava]

Ooo Mothy, you made me remember that my Grandad down in Devon has a nesting box on his fence, and the blue tits were busy building, when for no apparent reason, they deserted their nest and eggs!  When he went to investigate, wasps had taken over the nesting box to make a nest of their own.  As you can imagine, they were quickly evicted!  Another resident he had was a family of field mice.  They moved in very early one spring and used the box all summer through!  So you see, it isn't only birdies you can help along with man made homes.  ;D