I'd noticed just how mossy my lawn had become so as I raked it up I left copious amounts out for the robins and indeed any other nesting birds, with this Great Tit helping itself within ten minutes of me putting it out.
They'd picked a good spot as it was safe, sheltered and right by our bird/ squirrel feeding station and they took full advantage. The above shot shows one parent getting five sunflower hearts in it's beak.
They also took advantage of me relaying part of my lawn, no worm or grub was safe!
About the same time a Blackbird pair took up residence in a bush near our kitchen window but sadly didn't stick around, shame really as we would have been able to see and hear the young from the house.
And finally in May I saw some fruits of their labours. This brood seemed to take forever. Once they dispersed I think I heard three of them calling from various hidden spots in the garden. Sadly we had a downpour and a recently used bucket collected some and a fledgling successfully perished in it.
At last, I could access my shed and get at stuff/ clear up. The birds had not left much tidying up but I noticed that a mouse had bitten a hole in the floor and taken up residence, chewing up a leather glove in the process. No inspiration from this visit but a previous mouse incursion into my shed spawned this contraption.
Predictably they'd nested on a shelf and once the rough and ready outer was discarded it revealed a cosy inner which had a large proportion of lawn moss in, plus a few uneaten sunflower hearts.
Last year I did a blog about a Great Spotted Woodpecker family raising a brood near me, well after all this nest action I went back to investigate their nest site to find that this year's inhabitants are Starlings. Isn't nature great?
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