Watching Ella and Pip burrowing their way into the Radisson nestbox over the last couple of days we worried that they might at any time decide it wasn’t worth the effort anymore and move over to the east-side nestledge. The ledge only has a light layer of snow so easy to get down to the gravel to scrape which has got to be more appealing than snow drifts. It also has a whole lot less protection for chicks which Ella might not know having never nested there. Adding to our the concern is that if our count is right, Ella should start laying very soon.
So what to do? Go dig out the nestbox so they can get in/out easier and help the snow will melt faster? Or leave them alone rather than take the risk of scaring them away from the box and over to the dreaded nestledge. In the end we decided to take the chance and we prepped so that we could do the job quickly.
The hero of the day was a shovel with a handle broken about 8 inches above the blade which turned out to be the perfect tool for the job! We didn’t remove all the snow because it would have disturbed the gravel and we could see that the birds had been hard at work on more than a couple of scrapes. We removed just enough snow to make access easier and the rest won’t last long with the warmer weather forecasted for the rest of the week.
Job only took a few minutes to complete and after first circling and yelling at us, Pip (below left) and Ella (below right) settled down on the wall above to supervise our work!
