Our robins have fledged! There have been four I think, but perhaps five, squeezed into a small open-fronted nest box designed for a wren. The box has been up for years in our shed and when the door is closed there is an open slit above that provides easy access. Wrens have nested there from time to time but this is the first time we’ve had a robin. As it's an open-fronted nest box, the birds are used to our comings and goings in the shed but it's important not to disturb nesting birds.
Fledglings and a mystery
Robin chicks in nest box by Rosemary Winnall
The robins fledge and Rosemary wonders what's taken up residence in the kestrel box...
Kestrel nest box by Rosemary Winnall
One of our other garden nest boxes was put up just three years ago when one of our conifers was dying - we decided to cut the top off, leave the trunk and pop a kestrel box on the top. Since then we’ve not seen a kestrel but have had other birds taking an interest, and the buzzard likes this as a perch.
Last year stock doves took over the box in early spring and took some days checking it from all angles in and out. Then a pair of jackdaws ousted the pair and started taking sticks in. I thought they were nesting and then to my amazement on May 14th I saw two baby tawny owls pocking their heads out!
This year we had the stock doves and jackdaws taking turns as before. Now it has all gone quiet and I don’t see anything going in and out. I wonder if the tawnies have taken up residence again? I must put out my night-time stealth camera to find out.