Starlings

When we first moved into our house in Harby, Starlings inhabited the void between our bedroom ceiling boards and the roof tiles and regularly woke us at feck o'clock in the morning. At one point their enthusiastic home-making actually punctured a hole in the ceiling which began leaking odorous nesting material and such like. Being house-proud and versatile in the DIY department, I fixed the hole with a small piece of gaffer tape and started pondering eviction methods.

Reluctant to use any sort of force, I commissioned a nestbox from my dad and placed it on the wall beside the hole in the roof. It's taken a couple of years, but the roof has now been abandoned and the box occupied. I ringed the first brood of four last night.

It's good to have them here still, despite the barrage of dung covering the car and the paving in front of the house. With populations declining across the country, Harby still seems to host a large population, all of which appear to be feeding young right now.

Pete