Greatbluehopefuls nest box 2019 & 2020 - Kildare,Ireland

I got a pair of paper wasp lanterns last year after a wasp kept coming in to the nestbox, it scared the blue tits off. It worked and have kept it up since and no wasp visits to this box this year.

They’re available on Amazon if you’ve no hardware open near you.........good luck. 🙏🏻

You could always catch her in a jar and take her for a little walkie GBH 
few mile drive from your house let her become someone elses problem

I think Irelands lockdown might be more strict compared to the UK. 
We don't have a travel limit in place staying you can only travel so far etc.

Oh it isn't like that here GBH,
I don't know about other places but I traveled 30 minutes across a motorway and everything the other day to go the vets and wasn't a police car in sight let alone checking.
I normally travel around 3 or 4 miles in car and park up to go on my walks aswell, and its around 3 or 4 miles to my local asda.
Not been stopped once over the last few weeks on long travels or short so I think yours maybe more strict, Judging by the dailymail the UK are out and about like nothing is going on idiots. 

Erm,
I am sure the GT is like the BT and only the female builds, I know the male house sparrow does bring material in and calls to attract a female.
But never seen that from a GT, I think its only the female who brings in material.

Also, just an update of day 3 in the Great Tits Aldi box nest.

Actually, there is alot more material brought in... it just doesn't seem like it when she flinging it all over the place.



Edited to add:
My decoy brown paper wasp nest is actually working - I have not seen one wasp in the vicinity of the back garden since I put it up yesterday evening. The queen has not returned to the nest box since yesterday afternoon - Complete success!!! 

I didn't understand that the decoy needs to be up for a good while before the wasps re-act to it, and  they need to be able see it properly and in full view from a distance.

Most importantly, there must NOT be an already established nest in the area, or it simply won't work.

So as its the Springtime, there wouldn't be an established nest yet, I added more bulk to the homemade nest and its much bigger and rounder now. I attached it to the corner of my conservatory so it can be seen from all sides. So far so good! My garden deck area is wasp-less! Quite noticeably. 

Apparently, the decoy works when the wasps see it in the distance, they don't bother coming any closer to investigate, in case they are attacked and so go off a different direction. They don't like confrontation so when they see there is a rival nest in the area, they will go elsewhere.

I have read reviews of people who say the decoy doesn't work  - but this is usually because they have put it up too late in the season. By then, there is already a mature wasps nest nearby, and so this established nest will view it as an unwelcome intruder and will want to attack it. The Queen will send out her drones to investigate, ready for battle....which of course on inspection of the decoy nest, they soon realise its a fake. Rendering it useless.

So putting them up early in the season is the key. The trick is to keep them from investigating the decoy in the first place. I have purchased two "Waspinator" decoys now online to hang up in other areas as they won't disintegrate in the first shower of rain like my current brown paper one will.

Thanks Sammi - I think these birds are not serious at all....perhaps they've decided to secure as just a back up nest?

She is still visiting and the material has been moved around in the box again - its a right mess in there though and no real structure is forming. They don't seem to be in any real hurry at all?

Thanks Paul...yes...such a long wait!!! Its seems cruel alright that once again another year might pass again...  (Can't bring myself to burn that Aldi box...ha,ha!!)

Ah but you know what, over all, its actually been quite an enjoyable birding experience so far at this new house, what with us having the benefit of watching the long roosting period with Maurice from October right up to late March, fights in the box, various visitors and then all the excitement when Beaktrix started bringing material in and roosting etc. ...then the Queen wasp arriving, eviction, the big Spider moving in,  another Queen Wasp arriving, another eviction, decoy wasps nests being built, and now another potential Great Tit nest....
which I'm not giving up on just yet!

And don't forget - I've still the potential for getting House Martins too with my homemade muck boxes!


So, with all that activity, I really can't complain. Its been far more productive than other years....where I was just watching the floor of an empty box.
That was pure torture. 


Yes.....more tweaks to be made for next year in relation to bird safety and I'll hopefully have better, more prolonged success.

I am gutted over Maurice/Beaktrix of course, more just to think of the stupidity of welcoming a predatory animal into the garden at such a delicate time....and that they potentially met a bad end because of it. I do hope that they just went elsewhere and set up home there. 

Edited to include Day 4 of Great Tit Aldi box nest build - actually looks a bit better than it did at 8am this morning!!! Might be some hope yet!

So glad you sorted out the wasp problem GBH. Maybe you should ‘patent’ your decoy and sell online, seeing as the hardware stores are all closed at the moment.

The nest is coming along very well, if not slowly, but it looks like there will be a nest eventually.....

Is material still being brought in GBH?

It seems it is, but I'm not sure??? Might be just the same stuff being moved around.

So this morning I'm going to camp out in the shed and see if I can't get a live update on what is going on.

So, typically, waiting ages, no activity, went in for 5 mins to grab a cuppa, and when I came back, she was already in the box!! So, didn't see if she brought in any more material with her. 

But here she is doing her usual trick of sorting, teasing and moving stuff around...its constant.
Apologies for really crap video but you get the idea.

Thanks Helen...Well, we'll see. Yes, the moss is bone dry...she's taking it from the offerings I have left out which is there since the other week. Perhaps I should hose it down a little to moisten it? 

I really do hope something comes of it...she's been in and out a bit more today I feel...the male stays up in the tree above and calls to her. No sign of the third Great Tit today.

My shed has a window on the opposite side of where the bird box is, so I just leave the TV on and can noiselessly sneak down keeping to the edge of the hedge to the end of the garden to view the TV from a few feet away through the window....I found that going into or near the shed did kind of disturb her and she'd fly out, so I've stopped doing that now.

The second he stops calling, her head is up looking out the hole...he doesn't seem to be bothered by my being there... but if I get too close, the calls change to a different type. Obviously a warning signal.

Really loving this!!! I've learned so much more about these gorgeous little birds this year.