What makes a good nest site?
People are always interested in the quirky nesting sites some birds choose to lay their eggs and a couple of weeks back we had one of the weirdest. A robin had chosen to nest in a motorcycle helmet, which someone had left the visor up on over winter (that mistake won't be happening again). But once at the fledgling stage they all made it out of the helmet and flew off into the world without incident.
Yesterday we seem to have topped that with a mallard who had nested in the roof of the main observatory. It's quite normal to get collard doves or wood pigeons doing this but never a duck......until now.
Unfortunately this mallard's plan of a really safe nesting site did not then translate into the ideal place for ducklings getting to water! After visitors had heard cheeping from the loft in the afternoon we had to start a duckling rescue. The ducklings had fallen into an area that they couldn't get out of so we had to remove some panels of wood to get to them.
Twelve ducklings in all were rescued and were safely reunited with mum. She didn't stray far during the whole ordeal and this is often the case if you do find young birds, that the parents are often nearby even if you yourself can't see them. They do try to return to the young and prior to us getting to the hide she was calling to them to encourage them out, however in this case that wouldn't have helped due to their location.
