Any ideas what could have happened?

[Jules001]

On Saturday I bought my first nest box, I helpfully put a little nesting material inside and up it went, Sun morning very excited to see blue tits removing all the nesting material and leaving it on a bush. They spent all morning doing this and were still busy when I went out in the afternoon. When I came back later on in the day, the activity had ceased and although a couple of blue tits went in to check it out yesterday, they seem to have abandoned it. Does anyone have any ideas what may have happened to scare them off. It is on a pole in the garden sited near enough to trees for cover, but not near enough for something to jump onto it from them, we have also put a band of holly about 18inches down from the box to hopefully deter squirrels from shinning up the pole.

[Lonnie]

As you discovered, you don't need to put anything in the box, the birds do ot all themselves,
As for whats happened, assuming the birds checking it out aren't the same ones that cleaned it, somethindg may have happened to one of the original pair, (cat, hawk etc), in which case the remining bird won't come back, hpefully there are no eggs there, but I would think, if the others aren't making a home there, they may believe it to be occupied.

If Tbird+s around, he may be able to come up with something else.

[Cetti]

Don't worry Jules, nothing is wrong, it's a waiting game now and the good news is they don't need any help as choosing nesting materials is a major part of the bonding/nesting ritual in the birdy world.

It's like us selling up and looking for a new house ..it takes many houses before we find the right place in the right location. So it is with birds - in fact although you may me lucky this year it can take a couple of years before your new residence is occupied. I put one up three weeks ago and have had a couple of interested looks, but so far no sign of habitation, but in time I'm sure it will just right for some lucky pair!

Like any new item in the garden, be it feeder, bird bath or something hanging from a tree the birds will ignore it for some quite a while until they accept it. Getting back to nest boxes a couple of weeks ago was Nest Box Sunday when literally thousands were bought .....so there are many residences to choose from.

[Thunderbird+]

I agree with Lonnie and Chetti, birds seem to prefere to choose their own nesting material, what I do is leave a bunch of combed out dog hair in the holly bush and they just help themselves to it, or sometimes completely ignore it and go and find some horse hair, fussy lot birds !

I also feel that you would be lucky if your box is exepted by the first couple that happens to come along. I also think you are right to be wary of predators and it's agood idea to make their nesting area as safe as possible !
Good Luck Tbird+

[WendyS]

Birds seem to be very suspicious of anything new and were very wary of the two new nest boxes we erected several years ago. However, gradually they get used to them and start inspecting them around nesting time, although we've had several disappointments with birds popping in and out and then no follow up and never really figured out why they didn't nest there. But they certainly prefer to use their own nesting material and every spring we rake out the moss from our lawn and leave it in heaps where bluetits and blackbirds particularly like to come and make use of it. The other very acceptable nesting material is the carpet fluff from your vacuum cleaner.

[heathfield]

It's getting a bit late in the year for blue tits to be seeking out nesting sites, especially with the warmer winter bringing nesting earlier. But they're known to inspect and remove material from boxes in a search for insects to feed on.