South Dublin Nest Box Project

The nest box project has been running for ten years now in the parks of South Dublin. Tom Kealy, its co-ordinator and the manufacturer of the boxes, reports on the ups and downs of the project during 2003.

The nest box project of the South Dublin Branch re-started in February this year with a general visit to all the sites. The sites are St. Stephen's Green, Palmerstown Park, Herbert Park, Cabinteely Park and the most recent site Dalkey Hill. All are targeted at Blue Tits. The first visits were to check the condition of the boxes after the winter. This is a good time to clean out the boxes, although it can still be done in March. This allows the birds to forage over winter on the hosts of the old nests inside the box, insects etc. The next visits to the nests are about every three weeks or so until breeding starts then we leave it to viewing from a distance and recording the activity.

Last year we put up six new boxes on Dalkey Hill and hope to increase this by another six next year. An interesting development in Dalkey was a pair of Spotted Flycatchers seen twice in the woods and we hope to place a few nestboxes for them next year.

The weather at the early part of the breeding season was quite wet and this affected early breeders. Some boxes with only partly built nests were deserted. The weather soon improved as did the nest box success rate in the parks.

In Stephen's Green nine boxes produced 40 Blue Tit chicks. In Palmerstown Park of the eight boxes only three were used producing 11 chicks. Some boxes in this park may need to be repositioned. Cabinteely Park has ten boxes, including a new Treecreeper box, of which seven boxes were used producing 36 chicks. Herbert Park was disappointing with only two of the seven boxes being used and one nest's eggs abandoned, leaving a total of eight chicks for the park. Of Dalkey's six boxes, four were used producing 11 chicks.

These figures indicate a good take up of our nest sites showing a general need for artificial nest sites in the built-up areas of our city where natural nesting is under threat. There if future potential for housing for Swifts, Robins, House Sparrows and maybe even Dippers?

Tom Kealy

For information on construction and placement of boxes see: www.lincstrust.org.uk/factsheets/nestbox.php http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/factsheets/nestbox.php