Garden birds are on the lookout for nesting sites at this time of year and the British Trust for Ornithology is asking bird lovers across the UK to help birds by putting up nest boxes in their gardens as part of National Nest Box Week this week.February 2010
Glenlivet gets ready for spring
The Crown Estate Countryside Rangers at Glenlivet Estate are helping local wildlife get ready for spring as they put up over a dozen bird boxes made by local community groups.
Tomintoul Youth Club and pupils from the rural skills course at Speyside High School joined forces with the Countryside Rangers and the Glenlivet Wildlife Recording group over the winter months to make bird and bat boxes.
Garden birds are on the lookout for nesting sites at this time of year and the British Trust for Ornithology is asking bird lovers across the UK to help birds by putting up nest boxes in their gardens as part of National Nest Box Week this week.
Over thirty young people at Glenlivet honed their joinery skills as they constructed three different types of boxes including bat boxes for pipistrelles, open-fronted bird boxes for robins or grey wagtails and hole fronted nest box for blue tits, coal tits and great tits. Some made boxes for their own gardens, while the others will be put up this spring by Glenlivet staff around the adventure playground area in Tomintoul and along the nature trail at Glenmulliach forest.
Countryside Manager at Glenlivet Vicky Hilton said; “Putting up a nest box may only seem like a small thing to do but it can make a big difference in providing an additional nesting habitat for wildlife. It has been great to have help from the community in making all the boxes and I’m sure the wildlife will appreciate it too!”
And the provision of nest sites is not just for small garden birds. The Crown Estate Rangers and RSPB staff recently installed a nesting platform for Golden Eagles at Glenlivet as part of the North-East Scotland RaptorWatch project.
Andrew Wells, Head of Countryside Management for The Crown Estate added “the nest box work at Glenlivet is part of a wider programme of events and activities we are holding on our estates around the country to promote national nest box week. This is helping conservation efforts for a wide range of birds, particularly those such as Barn owls where the availability of suitable nesting sites is a major constraint on their breeding success.”