Activity: Bird nesting boxes and insect hotels

Location: Outside Lappia Hall

Date:Tuesday October 9- Thursday October 11, 2018

Time: 12:00-15:00

Join staff from Metsähallitus, Metsähallitus Forestry Ltd and Science centre Pilke to construct bird boxes and insect hotels. Participants can take their boxes and hotels home with them, or they can donate them local schools, who will take them into the forests and monitor their use.

Chairs: Timo Tahvonen with Science centre Pilke inspirers, Metsähallitus

Bird nesting box. Photo: Timo Tahvonen A bird nesting box can provide an essential nesting area for many bird species. While many species are able to hide their nests in dense foliage or grassy meadow areas, many others require holes for nesting. Some birds, such as woodpeckers, can excavate their own nesting cavities in dead or decaying trees. Others depend on the abandoned nesting holes or natural cavities formed from fallen branches for places to build nests. Recently, however, an increase in development and removal of damaged and dead trees has left many cavity-nesting birds with fewer natural places to raise their young. A bird nest is made by adding a base and a roof to a frame that has been pre-drilled from a spruce stem.

Insect hotel. Photo: Timo Tahvonen An insect hotel, also known as a bug hotel or insect house, is a manmade structure created to provide nest sites and hibernation sites for pollinating insect species. The insect hotels can come in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on the specific purpose or specific insect it is catered to. Most consist of several different sections that provide insects with nesting facilities – particularly during winter, offering refuge for many types of insects. The amount of pollinating insects has decreased because of the use of pesticides and diminished amount of dead wood in forests and cultural environments. This has a negative impact on the reproduction of vascular plants. The housing is made of a recycled milk carton and tubes are from the hollow stem of Angelica silvestris. For the tubes it is also possible to use stray or any hollow plant stems.