1. Environmental Projects 2009
2009 focused on the rare bird, the Pied Flycatcher. Pied Flycatchers are amber listed under the UK conservation
categories because of steep declines in their population in recent years (around 44%). They are closely associated
with oak woodland such as that found on the Ercall and take readily to nest boxes, so the volunteers had high hopes
that the majority of the nest boxes would be occupied.
The specific objectives were:
• To increase he breeding population of the Pied Flycatcher in the
Wrekin and Ercall Woodlands.
• To achieve a stable and viable pied flycatcher breeding
population on the eastern fringe of its breeding range in
Shropshire.
• Install 30 nest boxes in the Wrekin and 30 nest boxes in the
Ercall Woodland.
• Check and repair existing nest boxes in Limekiln Wood to
ensure a stock of 20 nest boxes.
On 10th and 17th March volunteers at Ricoh constructed the nest
boxes from locally sourced sustainable wood. 5 volunteers gave
up their time and a total of 30 hours was spent constructing the
boxes alone.
Three days were spent installing the nest boxes in the various
locations around Telford; 24th March, 31st March ad 03rd April. 9
volunteers gave up their time to hike, climb and scramble around
woodlands in order to erect these boxes.
A survey was carried out in June 2009 in order to measure the
success of installation of boxes. The programme exceeded the
expectations of the project’s ornithologist, with most of the
boxes having hosted a nest of Pied Flycatcher, Blue Tits or Great
Tits.
The pied Flycatchers that were found were ringed with identification rings in order for them to be tracked in the
future and their breeding monitored.
The results were surprisingly impressive with 10 pairs of Pied
Flycatchers recorded and ringed with identification bands for future
tracking.
• In the Wrekin woodland 7 pairs with 44 young were recorded;
• In the Ercall Woodland, 1 pair with 6 young was recorded;
• In the Limekiln Woods 2 pairs were spotted.