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Tuesday 1 October 2013

Cornwall's first Marsh Tit scheme?

After cycling home in abysmal conditions tonight in record time, 44 mins, 55 secs from Falmouth to Troon smashing three minutes off my previous best I decided there was no better way to relax than build my first nest box for Marsh Tit's.


I have enough timber to make a dozen of these bad boys making what I assume will be the first specific Marsh Tit nest box scheme in Cornwall. The boxes will be placed at ground level or just above and will be sited in pairs approx. 5m's apart. The boxes are put in pairs to mitigate competition from Blue Tits.  I'll also put some specific Blue Tit and Great Tit boxes up sited at 2m in the same area.

The box is made from a 5" plank and a 3" plank giving a smaller floor space of 3"x3". It is literally just big enough to get my hand in, this will hopefully discourage their larger cousin the Blue Tit.

The box is made from 1" thick untreated rough sawn timber, I may treat it with Sadolin, I may not. I'll decide later. The dimensions are -

Back = 5" plank 12" long
Front = 5" plank 9" long
Roof = 5" plank 5" long

Sides = 3" plank 10" long tapering to 9 to give a sloping roof"
Floor = 3"x3"

The entrance hole is 25mm which will exclude Great Tit. Approx cost of making the box was a bank breaking £2.

The boxes will go up at Stithians Reservoir

1 comment:

  1. An excellent idea and one I will look into making soon. We currently have 50 boxes in a local private wood here in North Devon and are also recording the nests we find for the BTO.
    Even though my partner Jo and I have spent the past five years helping a licenced bird ringer on Exmoor we are quite new to searching for nests, so we have as yet to 'get our eye in' as so to speak.
    We put out our boxes a few months ago so they weather into the area and are around 50ft apart. So far as of 9th April 2017 we have 13 nests with eggs, mostly Blue Tits, song thrush (high on a branch - mirror), with a couple of Nuthatch nests yet to lay.
    As mentioned we are new to searching and spotting nests when not using a nestbox, so any tips, tricks and help you can give especially hedge nesting birds, as we have access to some farm fields with old Devon bank/hedge rows and live in a very rural area.
    Thank you for everything you put on your blog. my partner spotted you and I thought as a fellow nest recorder, we should at least say hello!
    All the best,
    Paul & Jo
    www.devonartist.co.uk or email paul@devonartist.co.uk

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