For one reason or another the Redstarts abandoned their first nest this year which they had built into the side of the stone barn. So we were pleasantly surprised that they came back for a second go but this time they decided to make their nest on one of the roof beams which are about 125mm wide. I only discovered this as there was quite a lot of moss and bits on the ground however, this plan was not too successful either as something happened which I had not seen before: another bird flew in up to the the nest site and pushed the whole lot onto the ground whilst loudly chirping.
I thought, "I know, I will make a nest box," but of course there are many pitfalls with this solution. Some of you must know that the RSPB and BTO have performed a lot of market research on nest box dimensions, literally hundreds of birds have been interviewed and dutifully filled out 1000's of questionnaires on topics such as location of nest box, size of entrance hole, height above ground and probably even wood colour: "Now Mr and Mrs Redstart, what aspect do you prefer - west or east?" and the list goes on...
The long and the short of it is that I found some wood which is not treated and I then looked at the existing nest sites and thought "Let's quickly make a box and see if it gets any interest," note: it is not a work of art. Well lo and behold they were pretty much in there straight away and after a few weeks of activity, finally, this weekend we have had three Redstarts fledge and they are happily flitting around the garden making their parents run around fetching and carrying food.Nev
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