National Nest Box Week starts on St Valentine’s Day; a suitable day to remember to provide homes for birds in the vegetable garden.
National Nest Box Week encourages everyone to put up nest boxes in their local area in order to promote and enhance:
- biodiversity
- conservation of our breeding birds
- wildlife
nest-box-in-tree
TopVeg has made 9 nest boxes to put up in the vegetable garden and the surrounding area. They are different shapes and sizes in order to attract different species of birds, because birds are territorial. Robins, for example, do not like to have another family of Robins on their patch.
NestBox
Click this link for plans for making a nest box which are on the British Trust for Ornithology site.
The BTO have also produced a book called the Nest Box Guide which can be obtained from Amazon by clicking the link:
Help the birds in your garden by starting to make a nest box on Valentine’s Day!
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The Great Spotted Woodpecker (latin name – Dendrocopos major) has been drumming away for a few weeks now.
The drumming sound is the Woodpecker trying to attract a mate by vibrating its bill against a branch. We have been wondering what sort of success he was having.
Today we noticed a pile of wood chippings under the old ash tree. Looking up, we saw two very round holes in the trunk.
woodpecker-nest-hole
A cosy hole in a tree trunk is the place where Woodpeckers nest. The nest entrance is always very round, as this photo shows:
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robin's-nest
Placing nest boxes in the garden can be very rewarding. Robins like to nest inside a container, like an old kettle or plant pot.
A cheap, woven nest box was put in some ivy on the edge of the kitchen
garden in the middle of February. A piece of tin was placed over the
roof, to keep the rain off.
A robin moved in within a week, and started to build a nest.
robin nest box
This is a photo of the nest inside the new box.
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hedgesparrow-chicks
The hedge sparrow that built a nest in the sprouting broccoli has hatched some chicks. In spite of picking the sprouting broccoli every day, the hedge sparrow sat tight and in a couple of weeks five chicks hatched out.
The parents are getting busier and busier feeding the chicks as they grow, and their appetites increase.
nest-of-hedgesparrow
The broccoli was ready to harvest in February. It was a welcome change from brussel sprouts which had been providing greens throughout the winter.
The nest is now a problem as it is delaying the soil preparation for the courgettes!
chicks-in-broccoli
Bird Table News has information on nesting birds.
The GreatBigVegetableChallenge has 4 great broccoli recipes.
The TopVeg hedge sparrow, which hatched chicks in broccoli, is quite special.
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