Return of the Pied Fly

Last week I blogged about my concerns of poor numbers of returning Pied Flycatchers. I usually get slightly stressed this time of year simply because I want to break my nesting records each breeding season.

Today I have returned home from a lovely 3 days spent camping down Llandovery and was really eager to take a look at one of my nest box sites. I was keeping my fingers crossed that I would see evidence of more Pied Flycatcher activity than I did last weekend. I checked on about 40 nest boxes and was pleasantly surprised to see 4 Pied Fly nests along with numerous Blue, Great tit and Nuthatch nests.

What was really pleasing to see was a few large clutches of Blue and Great tits. Blue tits took a real hit last year mainly due to poor weather conditions resulting in many failed clutches. Great tits also took a hit although many attempted second clutches.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a bumper year of Pied Flycatcher nests with hopefully a return of some Redstart pairs using my nest boxes. I wont check on my Barn Owl nest boxes for another month but I'm hoping for an increase in numbers of nesting Pairs. I would be disappointed if I failed to get at least 6 pairs raising clutches this year.

Next weekend I will be out monitoring other nest box sites on Saturday and Sunday and hopefully I will have a clear idea of how this season is going to play out. Fingers crossed.