Coal tits fledglings rescued.

[astarsdad]

While putting out the bird food this morning, I noticed an old nesting box on the lawn. Coal tits have been using this box. The entrance hole was tightly blocked up with nesting material and when I picked up the box I could hear a scurrying noise inside. I pulled the nesting material from the entrance hole and 5 young coal tits came flying out. There was one still left inside which I managed to get out and photographed (it could not fly). I replaced all the nesting material back into the box and the chick that could not fly. I imagine a cat has had a go at the box. I put the box back in the position it was originally in. I now have to decide if I should reposition it to make it less accessible to the cat. Any suggestions?

[paulinemiller10]

Once the chicks are out of the nest, parent birds will look for them and feed them, the chicks shout for food, so I think the parents will hear the chick shouting and feed it where ever you place the nest box, if your going to be around to keep an eye on the box I would leave it where it is and maybe put it higher up for the night. Pauline.

[RKB]

Does sound like a cat.

They look a couple of days off fledging, but should be ok as long as the cat doesn't come back. Only thing you can do it to protect the box with a surround of large-guage chicken wire to create a bit of a dome enclosing the box. Tits can get through, but not cats. It needs to be a good 8" away from the box, so quite large. You could try it this year and it should be ok, but it's definitely worth doing next year.

Another thing you could try is to create a tunnel to the box's hole, about 6" long, to put the nest beyond a cat's reach when it sticks the paw in. Making a deeper box (25cm from bottom of hole to base of box), with a smaller tunnel, would also help. The tunnel is made just by fitting a block to the front and drilling a hole (only needs to be 25 mm for Coal Tits).

If you move the box higher you will probably get Blue Tits rather than Coal.

As a quick temp measure for now, I'd suggest rubbing cayenne pepper around the box's lid and entrance, and the tree branches - it affects a sniffing cat like it would you or I, but birds are unaffected. It might just repel it long enough.