Meisen Wood: May Days

Ringers: CS, EB and assisted by JW

Methods: Mixture of Nets and Boxes

Species	Ringed	Re-trap	Pulli	Total
Blackbird		2		2
Blackcap	4	2		6
Blue Tit		1	15	16
Dunnock		2		2
Firecrest	1			1
Great Tit		2	14	16
Nuthatch		2		2
Pied Flycatcher	8	7	11	26
Robin		1		1
Song Thrush	1			1
Wren		2		2
Tawny Owl			8	8
Jackdaw			3	3
Kestrel			5	5
Total	14	21	56	91

May days bring a change to our birding and bird ringing activities.  Birds are on territory and their mobility seems to be much reduced, a hypothesis supported by the low numbers that fly into the mist nets.  This point is emphasised by our Chiffchaff captures (or rather lack of) – wandering around the site there are at least six males rendering their zilp-zalp calls with undiminished gusto.  Therefore our efforts switch to monitoring nest boxes and ringing pulli.

In Meisen Wood there are 83 nest boxes designed to attract Great Tit, Blue Tit, Crested Tit Pied Flycatcher, Nuthatch, Robin, Redstart, and Treecreeper.  The area has been saturated with boxes for Great Tit and Blue Tit in the hope of encouraging more Pied Flycatchers to nest in the wood – this has had some success.  We check the boxes twice in May and at least once in June; further visits are dictated by what we find on those visits.

Box Condition	Numbers
Empty	38
Birds	37
Wasps	7
Failed	1
Total	83

The above table gives the preliminary results.  This year’s occupancy rate of 44% is the best to date.  The number of Great Tit and Blue Tit pulli ringed is less than in previous years because we were away for ten days visiting friends and ringing in England.  Examining the boxes upon our return the evidence suggested (nests flattened by hatchling activity) that an additional 30 Great Tit, 14 Pied Flycatcher and 12 Blue Tit fledged in our absence.  These figures are much better than last year when we were frequently emptying the nest boxes of dead chicks; Spring 2017 was very wet and cold with many small birds having a locally poor breeding season.

Pied Flycatcher nest

Pied Flycatcher chick

Two species of wasps, Dolichovespula saxonica and Vespula germanica (Saxon and German wasp respectively), often make use of some of the nest boxes.  Potentially it would make an interesting study, for someone who enjoys close encounters of the wasp kind, to examine the competition between birds and wasps for nest boxes and nest holes.   

Our friend Jürgen has a penchant for building nest boxes of multiple sizes for many species and erecting them around the county – it is one of his many contributions to local conservation.  Each year we monitor his 30 Tawny Owl boxes and 5 Kestrel boxes.  This year’s results for Tawny Owls were disappointing: only three boxes were occupied by the eponymous birds with a total of eight chicks that were duly ringed.  Disappointingly, too, was that the other boxes had no indications of Tawny Owl occupancy e.g. eggs, pellets nearby, or cached food.  Amusingly two boxes were occupied by Great Tits (Kohlmeise) who, in both cases, had completely covered the box floors in nesting material and constructed perfect nest cups, each with eight eggs.  We jokingly nicknamed these boxes Kohlmeisen Schlösser.  Two Kestrel nest boxes were occupied: one with five ringable chicks; the other with four eggs and a newly hatched chick, we look forward to returning to this nest in June.

Chris