Room to Let

On Saturday the Roundball Wardens used a welcome break in the cold weather to review the housing stock in the woods.  Whilst in other areas of Honiton proposed new housing development is causing concern, in the woods it is welcomed with no objections. Recognising the needs of new couples this spring we have erected 6 new starter homes, also known as nest boxes.

The existing boxes have also been cleaned out and renovated. In some of these older boxes you may have noticed that the entrance holes are larger than in others. This is the work of our resident Greater Spotted Woodpeckers and Grey Squirrels who see the young of Blue Tits and Great Tits as a good meal for their own young. To remedy this we have fitted metal plates to the front of the boxes to reduce the size of the entrance holes and hopefully make it very difficult for Woodpeckers and squirrels to gain access.

We have had nest boxes in the woods for several years and they have been well used. However up until now we have not kept records of what birds use the boxes or the percentage of use. This year we have numbered the boxes and are recording their take up. We will be publishing the information on our webpage and be keeping you updated via this blog. In the meantime if you know of a couple of Blue Tits looking for a room, send them our way.