Notes on a nestbox

I thought I'd give you a little history of our nestbox as it looks like we might get blue tits nesting in it again this year!

My Dad built it about 10 years ago and put it up on our wooden arch. I remember the joy of seeing a Blue Tit pair visiting it and checking it out for size. They nested that year and we had Blue Tits nesting in it every year after that. I recall seeing the cute fluffy yellow youngsters when they fledged dotted about the garden.

Then disaster in 2006. One night we had a storm with very fierce winds and the nestbox fell from the arch. In the morning we noticed it on the ground and, on opening it, found the female Blue Tit dead inside on her clutch of eggs. That was the worst year.

The nestbox wasn't that damaged so we put it up again and then had Blue Tits successfully fledge from 2007-2009. Last year however we didn't have any interest in our nestbox for the first time ever and it was all down to next door's cat! The birds nested instead in one of our other neighbours' nestbox a couple of gardens up and they had never had them nest before!

We have had interest from a pair for a few days with one of them actually going inside the box and pecking round the hole. If they do decide to nest this year then I hope that darn cat stays away!