Greatbluehopefuls nest box 2019 & 2020 - Kildare,Ireland
Apr 12, 2020 11:45:24 GMT
WildlifePaul, sammi, and 3 more like this
Post by greatbluehopeful on Apr 12, 2020 11:45:24 GMT
Hi all....well, its cooler and drizzly here today, so I got back to work on my House Martin boxes...plenty of mud around!!
So here is the two finished 'nest bowls' which if you remember were originally designed for Swallows in mind, so the bowl unfortunately, is a bit shallower than they should be for House Martins. They were drying for 10 days and the mud was absolutely rock solid. It would take alot to break them:
Then, in order to attach them to the wood, I got some plasterers tape and put it across them to secure each bowl to the wood as you can see here. I added another few lengths up and across then and secured with screws and washers, to form a 'grip' for the next layer of mud.
Next came another coating of mud....great craic!
Like I said, as these bowl were possibly too shallow, in order to make them more suitable for the House Martins I put them at an angle so that the bowls would be deeper. And then I built up the sides to create the start of a semi-circular entrance hole with a really thick, dryer mud mixture:
I know the entrance holes are too big at the moment, but I'm not going to add any more mud now, as the structure at the entrance would become weak...I'll let the House Martins complete the entrance holes to their liking if I happen to get lucky enough to attract any?
I was thinking too, as they are now, with the larger entrance holes, a robin or a wren would really love these little nest boxes too...they are ideal for their type of nest.
It will take another week or two for these to dry out completely rock solid again, and then I'll stick them up. So that's another job done.
Not bad for a homemade job!
------------
In other news , no sign of any activity in any of my nest boxes, other than that bloody wasp who has obviously decided to stay in the side view box and set up camp.
So here is the two finished 'nest bowls' which if you remember were originally designed for Swallows in mind, so the bowl unfortunately, is a bit shallower than they should be for House Martins. They were drying for 10 days and the mud was absolutely rock solid. It would take alot to break them:
Then, in order to attach them to the wood, I got some plasterers tape and put it across them to secure each bowl to the wood as you can see here. I added another few lengths up and across then and secured with screws and washers, to form a 'grip' for the next layer of mud.
Next came another coating of mud....great craic!
Like I said, as these bowl were possibly too shallow, in order to make them more suitable for the House Martins I put them at an angle so that the bowls would be deeper. And then I built up the sides to create the start of a semi-circular entrance hole with a really thick, dryer mud mixture:
I know the entrance holes are too big at the moment, but I'm not going to add any more mud now, as the structure at the entrance would become weak...I'll let the House Martins complete the entrance holes to their liking if I happen to get lucky enough to attract any?
I was thinking too, as they are now, with the larger entrance holes, a robin or a wren would really love these little nest boxes too...they are ideal for their type of nest.
It will take another week or two for these to dry out completely rock solid again, and then I'll stick them up. So that's another job done.
Not bad for a homemade job! ------------
In other news , no sign of any activity in any of my nest boxes, other than that bloody wasp who has obviously decided to stay in the side view box and set up camp.