Bird Nestboxes Introduction
This season, as everyone knows, wildlife need our help. There is a rhyme about a Robin that illustrates this very well:
The north wind doth blow,
Anon
And we shall have snow,
And what will the robin do then, poor thing?
He’ll sit in a barn,
And keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing, poor thing!
Very evocative of what all our birds and mammals face every year.
To help them to survive until spring comes again I have put up a couple of nestboxes – one in the pear tree as high as I can reach, facing away from the prevailing wind and 2 more in the bushes in our garden. These can shelter more than one bird as in this cold weather 3 or 4 will join together and cuddle up to keep themselves warm. (Our garden not being big enough to contain a barn!). Heaps of dry leaves shelter hedgehogs and the compost heap shelters slow-worms and other invertebrates..
In the Spring with hopefully, warmer weather we may be lucky enough to have these nestboxes full up with nesting birds and if you have a webcam you can even watch the anxious parents feeding their chicks,from the comfort of your own home – a very warming sight. Nestboxes can be left empty or with the nest material inside them in time for when the colder weather returns.