Nest Box Project

Abby, checking a box

My sister, Abby and I are being awarded a grant from Derbyshire Ornithological Society from a fund which was set up to help young ornithologist and we are very grateful for it.

We decided to carry out a nest box project at our school, this project has many variables (such as: where the hole is placed or where the box is placed and the effects of predation due to these variables.) and we will also ring the chicks. We placed 20 nest boxes around our school over the Easter holidays (10 in the woods on the outskirts of the school and 10 around the school buildings.) We have since been monitoring them and so far we have discovered 10 nests out of the 20 boxes.

Me, checking for a nest

From the fund we have invested in a pair of pliers, scales, a recording book and 2 rulers, in order to carry out the ringing of the chicks under the guidance of our trainer.

We hope by putting up these boxes my sister and I can spark an interest in other young people at our school.

We are going back tomorrow to check for further nests and nest development. We think the nests will mostly be Blue Tits and Great Tits. We are really looking forward to going back and finding out what is now in the boxes!