Nest

I tried out some nesting boxes for the first time last year but I didn't have much success with them. It seems the birds prefer to build their own accommodation. Although I get a lot of robins in the garden, none of them appear to have seen the attraction of the delightful residence I offered them. Maybe I'll do a conversion job this year and reduce the opening to a smaller one and see if some tits or sparrows like the look of it.

I knew there'd been some interest in the other box, because I could see some bits of grass sticking up above the opening. However, it's taken me a while to get to it to look inside. Bad weather and the fact that it's hidden in the middle of a fiercely spiny pyracantha, meant that I didn't get it opened until today.

Sure enough, inside was a lovely little nest, all dried grasses and soft moss. Nothing inside the nest, however, so I guess it was ultimately abandoned. I'll put it back and try again.

Meanwhile, before throwing the nest away, I had a go at sketching it. The experience reminded me of an old student exercise where we were asked to paint a pile of straw on a table - exasperating.

Anyway, even though the straw here looks more like the branches of a tree, this is what I ended up with.