A couple of years ago I noticed some rather strange things happening by the drain pipe at the side of the house, clumps of grassy stuff kept ending up in the drain hole, I kept clearing it out thinking it was blowing in from where we'd cut the grass.
But then we started to notice other strange things, the pipe from the bathroom started over flowing, the water was splashing all over the ground.
Stan & I went down for further investigation, Stan put his hand into top of the down pipe , its a v shape drain and pipe just goes into it, he pulled out enormous amounts of grassy, feathery stuff, then to our surprize a Great Tit flew by with much consternation, gave us a odd look and flew off.
Suddenly it dawned on us, the Great tit and partner had built their nest in the top of the down pipe and every time we emptied the bath it was washing their nest away!
We felt dreadful, we wanted to help , we didn't want the nest in the down pipe but what to do??
We had no more nesting boxes but we had a bat box unoccupied, so Stan managed to net off the drain pipe and screwed the bat box up beside the pipe and opened the top lid an inch or so and wedged it open.
Then we waited, a couple of days later we realised the birds had worked it out, a nest was being built in the bat box. Eggs were laid, chicks were hatched and all was well.
There are Great Tits nesting in the box again this year, it's wonderful!
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Elsewhere in the garden there are many other birds nesting too, but one caught my eye the other day. I was out feeding the rabbits when I heard such a commotion, Tinker, the tailess cat, was going mad, I saw a bird dart past and cat flew into the climber at the back of the workshop, cat scrambled up the plant, I shooed him down, as he stumbled to the ground I looked up to see what he was after and there in the climbing plant (you can tell I'm no good with plants, don't know its name!, it has flowers like a hydranga but its a rambler) I spy a tiny nest, in this nest are some small chicks, I can hear them.
I shoo the cat away and then position one of Stan's car bonnets against that section of workshop so Tinker can no longer climb up.
Then I go indoors and keep watch, I see a Chaffinch go to the nest, taking food. All is well. I've kept an eye on the the nest this past few days and every thing seems to be in order. Chicks are growing, parents are feeding. Cat is out of the way!!
6 comments:
How wonderful and how wonderful that you care so much!
Just popped in to catch up on the last few blogs - glad you're feeling up to getting back to work, Brighton sounded gorgeous, must visit. Aren't the birds funny? We have a blackbird nest behind Henry's bike, so he can't ride it until they fledge!
Poor old blue tit, not the cleverest idea, nesting in the down pipe!! We have a blackbird nesting in the garden shed at the moment, up high out of reach of the cat, which seems like an eminently sensible idea. Love the photos.
We had two bird boxes in France and they were both used by blue tit families. We wated hours watching them. No good putting any boxes up here, too urban and hundreds of cats.
We have hirondelles nesting in the chimney which is a real delight as htey bring luck but a real nuisance as they did not also bring warm weather so I spend my days freezing for eth sake of nature conservation!
Hello Muddie,
I just love looking at the birds, trouble is, I do not always get time to. That was so caring of you and Stan to do that for the birds with their nests. I had a Pigeon come down the chimney once, he was as you can imagine, all sooty-black. Luckily, it was in the summer, so fire was not lit, and Pigeon survived the ordeal.
Camilla.xx
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