Mopping up the remaining nest boxes

In the last week Andy, Jerry and Peter have made a couple of visits between them to mop up the last few nest boxes. On the 29th Andy did a sweep of the Cathedine boxes, what should have been a good session with 5-6 broods to ring was disappointing with a Weasel having predated at least 3 of those broods, including both Tit and Redstart broods. The Weasel had made a hole in the bottom of some of the boxes to access the nest. In the end Andy only had one brood to ring and managed to catch a Female of another brood, who's eggs were around the hatching stage.

Almost a week later, on the 4th of June, Jerry and Peter visited to go round the rest of the boxes, again it was a little disappointing with only 2 broods being ringed, the Weasel (or something else) had predated another nest at Catherdine and a couple of broods in the shelter belt had failed. They managed to catch 3 adults, all of which were new birds.

The totals for the two sessions were:
Pied Flycatcher 4+11p, Redstart 8p. For a total of 4+19p.

With only two or three broods remaining, the recent spell of failures leaves a disappointed feeling after box occupancy, particularly by Pied Flycatcher and Redstart, looked so promising at the start of the season.