The Grounded Orchardist

A very exciting thing happened in the orchard a few weeks ago. We installed our first bird boxes which just happened to be a world wildlife day…a happy coincidence! So why would we actively encourage something that is classed as a pest in our orchard???

We installed our first blue tit (or whatever takes residence) boxes in the orchard. It’s been part of the organic pest management plan for a while and it turns out our Falconers had the same idea.

An example of why this is so beneficial.

Blue tit chicks can eat on average 100 caterpillars a day, times that by 8-16 chicks in each nest…that’s a lot of potential predation!!! So this could be win-win, unless you are a Caterpillar of course!

(Just a thought…That’s a very busy blue tit parent!) 🤔

Moth Caterpillars are one of the biggest pests I deal with in the orchard and being an organic orchard it is very time consuming. It takes two weeks to take the nests out by hand to reduce numbers so any added help is warmly received.

Of course this will also help the residents of the nesting box too, I have a lot of food for them, every year. It may not be birds, it may be wasps, ladybirds, earwigs all are good for the orchard. (Apart from wasps and early apples or plums… But like birds they are hugely beneficial!)

Now I haven’t got rose tinted glasses on. I can’t control what nests or takes shelter in these boxes. It could be caterpillars or aphids. However, my hope is that a beneficial finds this all you can eat buffet and it creates the opposite effect in time.

We have put 10 boxes in so far and we have placed them in one quarter of the orchard to see if we can see an impact on caterpillar numbers within that quarter. Birds are very territorial especially if it’s a robin that resides so we have spaced them out as much as possible.

Another thing we may have to think of is whether we need to create some winter/spring foliage to help entice the birds. An orchard in winter is very exposed so that may have an impact.

These nesting boxes will add to our bug hotels and earwig homes and we will be having dead wood piles soon for beetles etc to help us with the hidden ground pests which often hibernate in leaf litter and top soil.

I look forward to being angrily chirped at by angry bird parents hopefully in the near future! 😀 🐦

Oh, and a lovely pic of our Falconers at Le Manoir Aux Quat ‘Saisons.