Owl boxes

Hi

No birds of significance to report today I'm afraid.  Yesterday Neil H and I spent the day stalking around Pitsford Res with a ladder over our shoulder and a couple of tubs of assorted equipment.  Our task was to visit all the owl boxes on the reserve and make them serviceable for suitable occupants this year.  Not so appropriate current occupants were the Pitsford Reservoir Grey Squirrel population that find these boxes exactly to their liking!  Due to the still heavily water-logged conditions on the reserve, it was a case of striding out to locate all the boxes rather than driving around, climbing up and clearing them out.  In some years Tawny Owls begin nesting in February but they can't compete with squirrels so hopefully we have given them a helping hand for 2013.

We didn't see much in the way of bird life on our travels around the reserve.  An egret was seen in flight but provided an obscure view to the degree that we didn't identify it.  A good twenty Siskins were with other birds around the feeders in Christies Copse and a Brambling was heard calling at the Old Scaldwell Road feeding station.

Regards

Neil M