Box Checking

We finally got the chance yesterday (Sunday) to check our 'tit' boxes in the wood, but the first few were empty, so this wasn't looking good. Out of the 25 we checked 6 held Great Tit and 7 held Blue Tit, all the birds were sitting tightly. The rest of the boxes were empty, normally we have a better take up than this, as last year we had 14 Blue Tits. Over at our Tree Sparrow site they are now coming to the end of their first broods, but they have been hit by the poor weather. Our main block of 13 boxes has 6 boxes still with  nests at various stages that have not moved since the beginning of April, and the others have all seen chick losses. They are 1/5, 3/5, 3/5, 2/5, 1/5, 5/5. so only 15 chicks ringed so far, but 2 are already laying up their second clutches. Last year we ringed 101 chicks from these boxes, so we have a long way to go yet.