Hardcastle Crags

7 people turned up in all to put up the 50 or so nestboxes targeting pied flycatcher, redstart and to a lesser extent spotted flycatcher, and remove old nests and un-usable boxes from the last time we put 50 up!

It was a successful, if long and tiring day. Around 80% of the 2005 boxes had old nests in, most presumably tits, but we unfortunately do not know due to lack of surveying. Two or three of the nests removed were significantly different though, consisting mainly of grass. Also, one of the open fronted boxes had a nest in.
The National Trust have this time allowed us to place the boxes visibly - something we had to avoid in '05. Therefore, surveying by the group, and in some cases the public, should be far easier. The boxes the Crags kindly put together for us are fantastic - very very substantial. They should last for many years. The boxes we placed today were in a variety of locations, habitats, tree types, heights, orientations, etc, so we are very positive that we should make some highly relevant findings, and ultimately boost the pitiful number of pied fly' and redstart in Calderdale.
Photos and more details to come, but thanks go to the team of:
Nick Carter
Andrew Crystal
Steve Cummings
Sean Johnston
Matt Bell
Tim Walker
Andy Huyton