NBC 2014 Season Report
After an exceptionally wet and stormy winter season, the spring and summer of 2014 were much more settled. Temperatures were generally above average and rainfall below; thankfully the majority of our garden bird species had fledged their young by the time ex-Hurricane Bertha passed over the UK in August. The clement conditions meant that many of our garden birds, particularly multi-brooded species such as Blackbird and Robin, were able to raise good numbers of young, potentially helping to compensate for the poor season of 2012 and 2013.
Species coverage in 2014
Tree Sparrow Feeding Young by Mara Welsh.
In total, 1,517 people took part in NBC during 2014, monitoring breeding attempts in 1,546 gardens. Data for 45 species were submitted from a wide variety of artificial and natural nest sites, the top five being (in order) Blue Tit, Great Tit, House Sparrow, Blackbird and Robin. Submissions of 194 House Sparrow and 87 Tree Sparrow nesting attempts were particularly welcome as both are included on the Bird of Conservation Concern Red List due to long term population declines. Breeding attempts of declining open nesting species such as Dunnock were also followed by NBC participants. Many larger nest boxes were also under observation; Tawny Owl and Jackdaw were recorded in chimney-style boxes and several people were lucky enough to have occupied Barn Owl boxes (note that you need a special licence to monitor Barn Owl nests as they are a Schedule 1 species).
Blue Tits and Great Tits
As in previous years, Blue Tit and Great Tit nests were by far the most commonly recorded for NBC. Over 60% of registered boxes were reported as occupied by one of the two, with 2,927 nesting attempts reported across both species. The large volume of data collected for tits is incredibly valuable as it enables us to look at the way in which region and habitat influence breeding success – after all, a Blue Tit nesting in a pine plantation is Scotland may experience a very different spring to one nesting in a Devonshire garden.
Laying dates for both Blue and Great Tit were significantly earlier than the average calculated over the previous five years, and clutch sizes were significantly larger. Figure 1 shows that after the poor nesting seasons in 2012 and 2013, clutch sizes of Great Tits were just about back to typical values, and this was true for many of our other garden nesters. Given that the winter has, so far, been relatively mild, females are likely to be in good condition so another year of large clutches might be predicted – in another few months you’ll be able to tell us whether this prediction was correct!
Making up for missed opportunities
Species such as Blackbird, which can produce multiple broods in a single year, had a hard time in 2013; while the number of chicks fledged from each nest was close to the average, the late start to the spring truncated the season, reducing the number of broods each female could produce before the autumn came.
There was no such problem in 2014, however. While January and February were very wet, with flooding in many parts of Britain & Ireland, the spring that followed was warm and dry and many species, including Wren (Figure 2), started nesting much earlier than usual. Figure 3, based on the ratio of juveniles to adult Blackbirds caught by bird ringers at Constant Effort Sites, shows that productivity was much higher than at any other time since the start of NBC in 2007.
Thank you
Thanks to all new and long-standing Nest Box Challenge supporters for erecting boxes and recording their contents in 2014. The information that you are collecting is helping to advance our understanding of the way that birds use gardens and green spaces in the UK and research at a national scale would not be possible without your help. If you have enjoyed collecting data for NBC then please consider getting involved in the Nest Record Scheme, which allows you to submit information about nests found in sites other than your garden.
Green Finch with young by Mara Welsh
Hazel Evans, NBC Organiser
February 2015
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