A few years ago hubby built two bird boxes with entrances designed to fit different birds – a robin and a blue tit.
The box for the robin featured here when I wrote about a wasps’ nest (or bike). That is the only use the box has seen in its current location. At first it was lower on the garage wall and a field mouse possibly used it.
The blue tits’ box has provided night-time accommodation for one bird at a time during a number of winters. It has never been used by a nesting pair.
This year the wasps used the blue tits’ box. They do not return to the site of a previous nest, but this was very close. After all the wasps’ activity had ceased, hubby dismantled the box.
We had been able to see the nest through the entrance, and the wasps entering and leaving. The entrance to their nest was at the bottom, so they had to make their way around the outside to reach it.
By the time we examined it the papery construction had become food for woodlice.
The clean nest boxes are now ready for their next residents. For completeness I really should mention the snails, which climb high ahead of rainy weather and have been seen under or even inside one of the boxes.
