brewood ringers

Pete and I went round most of the nestboxes at Belvide last night and found some really encouraging results. Basically, box occupation has jumped from about 40% for the last 2 years, to 70% this year! The chicks have fledged earlier--6 or 7 nests had already seen chicks leave, and mortality was very low. Only 1 nest had dead chicks suggesting one or more parents had been predated, and one nest showed signs of woodpecker attack. Great tits have done remarkably well with at least 15 broods ( a few boxes weren't checked through lack of time) producing at least 102 chicks and an average brood size of 7 ( ranging from 2 to 9). Blue tits had at least 17 broods, producing at least 157 chicks with an average brood size of 9 ( range 4 to 13). We estimate that with the chicks whick had already fledged and the boxes which were not checked there were probably another 80 chicks not accounted for.It seems that earlier fears of mass reduction in tit numbers during the very cold winter have not been borne out--no doubt because of the lifeline which feeding stations provide.