Hi
I am wanting to clean my nest boxes but at least three of them (3 of 4 that can be seen from the living room) are still being visited occasionally during the day (2 by tree sparrows and 1 by starlings). If I clean them now I am worried about disrupting their night time roosting. Should I just leave them be or won't it matter?
Pete
Hi Pete
If you are worried about disturbing them then you would be OK to leave them for this year. However, if they are only using the boxes to roost in it may be possible to have a quick visit to the boxes during the morning, remove any old material, give the boxes a quick shake out to remove anything hiding in the corners and then pop them back into position with a handful of hay or wood shavings. Hopefully the roosting birds would come back later in the day and not notice the difference. Check out the wildlife enquires blog for more tips on cleaning boxes.
You may already do this but if you have nesting birds using boxes, please report this via the Birdtrack website, confirmed breeding of starlings, tree sparrows and any other birds would be well worth adding!
Find out what's hot in the world of wildlife with the wildlife enquiries blog here
Hi Pete Welcome to the forum from Sheffield.
I don't know what the others will say but if it was me i would leave them for this year unless you could do one at a time and manage to get it dry before putting it back out at night.
Nice one getting Tree Sparrows.
Regards Alan
My photos are here and here
Agree with Alan, I would leave well alone while there is activity.
Lovely you have tree sparrows
Ray
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