Birds nests, parasites and bat boxes

I was greatly excited last week having made my first bird box in the workshop.

We were again working along the trail and in the Bluebell Wood. The task in the morning was to check the boxes that had been put up last year, remove any existing nest material, check which boxes needed repair or removal, and to put up some of the new boxes as replacement.  Three of us worked together, armed with a ladder and some of the new boxes. Where the boxes are past their best, they are removed and broken up, then thrown onto the woodland floor to break down naturally. We put a new box in the place where one had been taken down so that we knew where to put it. Apparently there is a map of all the boxes, all of which are numbered,  so that surveys can be made of bird populations.  But this map was back at base.

Last year's nests have to be cleared because apparently they get full of parasites and other nasties which the birds don't like, so they like to make a new nest each year. I was amazed at the composition of the nests, as well as the usual twigs and bits of moss, there were dog hairs and sheep's wool, and chewed up bits of the felt from tennis balls (used by dogs). All were cleverly woven into a very comfortable and cosy looking nest. The boxes are very effective at keeping the rain out, so they were dry as well. Some nests still had the egg shells in them. I learnt that these were nearly all blue tits' or long-tailed tits' nests.

Some of the boxes in the Bluebell Wood were positioned in the area which is the boggy bit and here some interesting plants are just beginning to grow. The bluebells are starting to poke their heads through the leaf litter. I was walking through the wet bit and saw a flash of bright red. I bent down, thinking it was some litter, but no, it was a beautiful scarlet fungus.  The warden looked at it and said it was an elf cap. A lovely find!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scarlet_elf_cap_cadnant_dingle.jpg.  There are also some glorious bits of bracket fungi on the larger rotting tree trunks lying on the floor, but I don't know what type they are.

In the afternoon, we revisited the places where we had left new boxes, then we put them into their new places.  This is done by means of threading two lots of gardening wire through fencing staples which had been put in the side of the boxes. The top wire is fixed around a branch on the tree, the bottom wire goes around the trunk.  I felt a sense of achievement when I put the first one up.

The other things I saw were three bat boxes. One had fallen off and needed repairing so I picked it up and looked inside. It is a very simple construction with a tiny opening and not much room inside, but presumably a very handy roost for these tiny creatures. When we were back at base, I asked the Head Ranger about bats. Apparently there are three, maybe four species around here. I have certainly seen some behind our house. Long-eared and pipistrelles are the most common, but we also have natterers and daubenton bats, these last of which roost under bridges and feed over water.  There are some under a local footbridge, so I'll have to go down one night and have a look.