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   Nest boxes - Newborough Forest June 2007
 
This box had not been used by red squirrels.
Nest Box 2 		This box showed signs of red squirrel nesting. Red squirrel hairs were present on double sided tape placed just inside the entrance hole. There was a chamber beneath the surface of the hay. On the photograph a twig can be seen just to the right of the entrance to the chamber. The nest cavity had lichen and moss added to the hay.
Nest box 3 		A deep hollow in the hay, the hollow is lined with a little lichen.
Nest Box 5
There was a chamber constructed inside the hay content of the box. The chamber had a few red squirrel fleas inside. Like all of the Newborough nest boxes, this one had double sided tape placed on the inside of the entrance hole. There was a large amount of red squirrel hair caught upon this tape.
Nest Box 6 		The shallow sleeping chamber of a red squirrel is very well defined in this photograph.
Nest Box 10 		A brood of great tit chicks. The adult birds have added moss and hair to the hay in order to create a nest. Once the birds fledge, red squirrels may use this material as a nest, either sleeping upon it, or using it to line a chamber constructed in the hay beneath the nest. All the Newborough nest boxes are filled with hay when they are erected, as this makes them more attractive to the red squirrels.
Nest Box 16
Another example of a deep hollow in the hay made by a nesting red squirrel.
Nest Box 17 		In this box you can just see some red squirrel hairs on the white tape beneath the box entrance hole. The squirrel had created a cavity inside the hay, and there is a hole in the hay leading down underneath.
Nest Box 19 		A red squirrel had used this box at some stage during the last three months. Great tits had also used the box and there are the remains of two nests, one of which (in the lower left hand corner) appears to have been damaged, possibly by a squirrel.
Nest Box 20
A brood of great tit chicks in a moss and wool lined nest constructed on the hay inside the squirrel box.
Nest Box 23		 Another example of red squirrels creating a chamber beneath the hay inside the box. This chamber was lined with lichen and moss.
Nest Box 25 		This box had red squirrel hair on the tape. However, red tailed bumble bees had taken up lodgings in the squirrel nest chamber in the hay. A stoat had also been in the box and there were scats containing rodent hair in one corner.
Nest Box 26
A closer shot of the scats found in the corner of the box
Nest Box 26 		In this image an old great tit nest can be seen in the lower left hand corner and a shallow hollow above it, just beneath the box entrance hole. This hollow was made by a red squirrel and illustrates that an animal slept in the box recently.
Nest Box 30 		This is an image of one of our captive adult females peeping out from a nest box. Wild squirrels were found to have used 60% of the 30 boxes in the surrounding woodland.
Box D
 
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In early June 2007 the 30 nest boxes surrounding the release enclosure were checked for signs of use by red squirrels. The images above are of the box contents. Holding the mouse over the image will display a description of each photograph. All images can be enlarged.
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