It's time to sort out those nest boxes

A very productive time in the garden this morning.
First job was to dig over our raised beds and dig up our remaining carrots and parsnips, we are now ready for this years vegetables.
The call of thirteen curlew across the common gave us a welcome break , as did eight raven which flew over the garden.

We then turned our attention to our 6 nest boxes. You can indentify the birds which have been using your nest boxes by looking at the construction of the nests and by looking at any remaining shells. This year we didn't have any shells but we did have these beautiful nests.

The one on the left is a blue tit's nest and the one one the right is a sparrow's.

The blue tit's nest is kept low in the box, neat and compact.

A sparrow builds it's nest upwards, it even builds a domed roof and fills in any cracks such as around the top of the door. very snug.

Once they are emptied they are returned to their trees ready for this year.

Of course there are birds that prefer to find their own nest sites in the most unexpected places.

A blackbird chose this old antler which is lying in our wood shed to build it's nest last summer.

Lunch break is over time to get back into the garden for a spot of weeding, oh joys!