Nesting boxes

An email from London Wildlife this week reminded me not only that it was the Big Garden Bird Watch weekend (if you hurry you could still get in your hour’s watching this afternoon) but that it is well time to think about installing nesting boxes in your garden if you want to attract some bird families. Nest Box Week runs from 14th-21st February – appropriately taking in Valentine’s Day.

To quote Vine Farm’s site (and thanks to them for the lovely image above) ‘in today’s modern world, parks are cleaner, woodland areas have fewer mature trees and buildings are built smarter with fewer gaps and crevices. This causes a real issue for British garden birds. With the lack of natural holes, nooks and crannies our birds are in shortage of nesting holes, and because of this, the population of some bird species has decreased. 

However, there are a few things we can do to help this with nestboxes being the most manageable. For those of us who have their own garden, we can replicate a natural nesting site by setting up our own nest boxes.’

In fact, if we were really keen we would have done this a few months ago as it seems that some birds start house hunting in the autumn so that they are ahead of the game when the moment arrives. But it is not too late.

Depending on what birds you want to attract you need a box with a small opening or a wide opening – and to place it (depending on the type of box and bird) either high up with clear access or hidden in trees or bushes to keep it safe from predators. It also needs to be out of direct sun so that it does not get too hot – assuming that the sun ever returns which looks unlikely today.

You can get lots of guidance (including instructions on how to build your own nesting box) either on the RSPB site here or on the Vine House Farm site (partnered with London Wildlife).

Boxes run from around £15 for a wicker box to around £35 for an up market wooden one.

Right – off to do my one hour’s bird watching having just filled up my bird feeders. Oh dear – I wonder if that is cheating… Do I get more than a ‘normal’ garden would because of the delicious gourmet nosh I offer…….