One good thing - 16th May 2020

I was working away from home through last week and on getting home it was obvious that some garden maintenance was needed; the grass has been growing fast as there's around 19 hours of daylight at this time of year.  I cut the grass then decided to use a petrol strimmer to cut down a patch of nettles and Ground Elder over the fence from the garden.

It was only after this was done that we noticed a pair of  Robins (Erithacus rubecula) repeatedly carrying food down into the area I'd strimmed.  I assumed that there would be a nest in the bank or drystone wall at the other side of the nettle patch, but I was wrong.

On the ground near the base of an old gate, the Robins had chosen a nest site in the remains of a plastic pipe on the ground.  Up until a couple of hours previously this would have been a sheltered, secret site in good cover.  It's clear how close I'd come to killing the chicks with the strimmer......

I took these photographs from a couple of metres away.  Although unharmed, the nest now looked pretty exposed, so to redress the balance and reinstate some shelter we used a broken roof ridge tile and some logs to recreate a site a pair of Robins had used in our woodpile a few years ago.

After just a moment's hesitation while they assessed the new situation, both parents carried on feeding the chicks and have been busy all day and late into the evening.  We'll watch with interest to see the youngsters fledge in a few days, but without doubt the best thing about today was that I didn't strim too low to the ground - and have made a mental note to be more observant before starting the strimmer!