Nest Boxes and Bluebells

The bird ringers are busy, out most nights checking nest boxes at Foxglove and on the training area.  Many Tawny Owl boxes now have the dates noted so that a return visit can be made to ring the chicks.  Whenever possible the adults are caught and this often reveals a great deal of information.  One Tawny Owl has nested in the same box for several years.

As spring continues it is the turn of the small boxes.  Coal, Blue and Great Tits are the main inhabitants.  During mist netting we process some of these birds that have been ringed in the nest boxes.  In some of the woods around Foxglove, Redstart and Pied Flycatchers can be found nesting. 

Many of these woods are home to carpets of Bluebells.

It is native only to the lands fringing the Atlantic and so was not mentioned by the early English herbalists who based much of their work on the Greek and Roman botanists, who were unfamiliar with this beautiful flower.

It is illegal to dig up any Bluebell bulbs.  Recent scientific research has shown that trampling of the leaves threatens the survival of the Bluebell.  It can survive without its flower but once the leaves are crushed, it is unable to make food.