Self-Catering Accommodation at Orchard Farm for Blue Tits

Just outside our kitchen window, nailed to a tree, is a nesting box given to us two or three years ago by Debbie – ‘American Deb’ who many of you may have met or at least corresponded with in the past, when she has taken over the reigns while we went away.

For several years no birds went near, but this year a pair of blue tits has made it their home. They have been so busy, flying in and out with bits and pieces for their nest. It has been frustrating not being able to see what is happening inside, hence our determination to buy an RSPB  nesting box (spotted at Carsington at the weekend) with a wireless camera rigged up inside it.

Meanwhile, we have waited and we have watched and John has photographed from behind a window (see some of his photos in the Gallery); Boots the cat lies languorously on the picnic table beneath but the birds seem quite undeterred. They are quite safe inside their little box with a tiny opening, far out of Boots’s reach, but when their babies launch out from the nest we shall keep a very beady eye on our beloved cat; fortunately, at 13 she is more fine words than action.

We have already witnessed at a distance one reminder that nasty things happen in the natural world. We had a pair of doves, who built a nest in a corner under the roof of our dutch hay barn. She sat patiently, until one day we saw crows almost literally dive-bombing her. Her nest is now empty but she is still about; maybe she will try again and choose somewhere better hidden from the wretched crows.