New Swift Boxes

I had some spare 8mm plywood in the top of the garage , it’s been there years. 

So I decided to build some new swifts boxes built to the spec of the house eaves on our estate so they would sit flush. 

I measured up then cut the wood with a jigsaw, nailed together and used no more nails to seal. I then sanded the boxes with an electric sander and painted the boxes with teak oil and then PVA to seal. 

Another trick I found when building owl boxes is if you seal the edges using exterior filler and the sand and paint with pva glue, it gives a smooth and rock solid finish so I also did this. 

I’m always conscious when using non exterior ply to give it a good few coats to seal as it easily splits if water gets in. 

After this I painted 3x with ronseal dark oak wood paint (to match the colour of the houses. 

The boxes have a 30mm x 65mm bottom entrance that they can swoop into. There is also a grippy landing strip. I decided to try a bottom entrance to keep the boxes unobtrusive if the neighbours want one. I also referred to the Bristol swifts blog which mark advised that these boxes work better for him. I plan to place two of these on the front of my house and it’s south facing so I wanted to keep all of the box shaded and away from the sun. 

I added a nest cup, with was made from clay, and then stuck some budgie feathers (no budgies were hurt during the making of this) , some fluff from the tumble dryer and some twigs. The idea of this is to give the birds a head start, it takes a swift a full season to build a nest, this might just give them the encouragement they need to breed that year if they are mature birds- although swifts add to their nest every year as its slowly decomposing all the time. 

Building Nesting Space for Solitary Bees

Lockdown in full swing , I’ve been trying hard to find things to do. 

Last year I got a solitary bee hive, eventually getting leaf cutter bees which kept be occupied all summer watching them going in and out. 

I wanted to add more so I converted an old sleeper I had into a bee tower. Using 8mm and 10mm Holes drilled 10 cm deep. I got to attract them. I also cleaned out my hive, I stored all the leaf cutters egg cigar until they hatch in May/ June. 

Within a few house a mason bee had found the hive , let’s hope I get bothe mason and leaf cutters this year.

Making House Martin Nesting Cups

I had an idea to make some House Martin Nest cups. 

Last year I was asked in my local Crofton Facebook group to help with a nest which had fallen down. 

House martins use mud for their nests and they can fall down, on this occasion the Martin has made its nest on wood , I can only think that when the wood got hot and expanded the nest had dislodged, 

As the nest was too high and I didn’t have another I had to foster the chicks in other nests which is not ideal. 

I made the nests from polystyrene coated in filler, I then cut the polystyrene out and painted them brown and added some mud. 

I don’t have any plans to put these up but rather keep them in case of emergencies. 

Island Clearance & Sand Martin Box Repairs

Today we cleared the islands and repaired the sand martin box in preparation for this years nesting season at Anglers a country Park

Also one of the Tern rafts which was built last year had lost its anchor during a recent storm so it had to be brought back to the shallows from the North bank.