On Saturday afternoon I went to check the 26 nest boxes at Coed Dolgoed after our monsoon. The first 11 boxes are along an exposed hedgerow and the news wasn't good; 17 dead pied flycatcher chicks from 3 boxes and only 1 box had anything alive which were 6 great tit chicks. I was really beginning to get worried as I worked along the boxes. Thankfully the next box had 5 live pied young and a further 3 boxes with pied fly young or eggs (females sat tight as I peered in!). Another box had 4 pied eggs although I did find a dead female under that box approx 4 weeks ago, maybe the eggs were hers?
Funnily enough the pieds seemed to have faired better in the wood than the tits during the downpour; 15 dead tit chicks and only 2 alive (amongst 4 dead siblings. I didn't remove the dead as they looked close to fledging!). There were 3 tit nests that looked like they had already fledged so not all bad news.
I cleared out all the boxes that needed clearing, I just hope the pied flycatchers will have another go! Fingers crossed
Andre Marsh