Newditch Plantation Spring Walk

Come along at 2pm on Sunday 22nd April for a short walk around Newditch Plantation. Stout footwear and sorry, no dogs.

Old nests - tits

Once the tits have fledged, the boxes are cleared out as tits in our area only have a single brood.

The pictures below show:

Left - a nest where the chicks hatched but died, probably due to the parent birds being predated.
The cup shape surrounds eggs and chicks during their early development and is made by the parent incubating the eggs and keeping small chicks warm.

Right - a nest where all the chicks fledged.
The nest material becomes flattened from the weight of the chicks and their trampling of the nest prior to fledging.

Tit nests to show difference in shape over time

Picture courtesy of Shirley Wittering.

Bird Boxes 2011

The bird boxes started to be checked for occupancy in March 2011. By mid-April all 14 boxes had nests and in 6 cases eggs were present. By the end of April, 12 boxes had eggs visible, or a parent bird sitting.

Blue Tit Eggs

Between 11th May - 20th May, the young in 11 boxes were ringed (2 nests not completed, and 1 box predated). By 30th May all but one of the nestlings had fledged and left the boxes - a great success!

In total the numbers of birds fledged is up on 2010:

Great tits                               47

Blue tits                                 37

From 89 eggs, we had 84 nestlings and of those ringed, nearly 100% fledged for both species.
An excellent result for our 2nd year with bird boxes.

March 2011

The trees/shrubs planted in Feb/Mar 2010 have now been checked for deer and rabbit damage.
Protection around these has been re-inforced with more substantial tubes and 'dead wood fencing'.
Some dead/weak trees have been felled and the branches used to create the 'fencing' mentioned above.

Bird boxes

One Great tit is guarding a nestbox, although there is no nesting material present! and one box is 1/4 full of fresh moss - ahead of last years nests.

Snowdrop Walk - Sunday 27th February

On a bright, early spring morning, about 30 people came along to the snowdrop walk at Newditch Plantation. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and showed interest in the project. Sadly the snowdrops were past their best, but both fallow and muntjac deer were spotted.

Snowdrop Walk - Sunday 27th February 11 am

Newditch Plantation will be open on Sunday 27th February at 11am, for a walk around the wood.
Meet at 10.50 am at the rear of the Bury, Farm Lane.
Please wear appropriate footwear, and sorry but no dogs allowed.