"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 3/7/06 11:48, in article
,
"Mary Fisher" wrote:


wrote in message
ups.com...
I have a tree (Ok, Lleylandi sp?) I desperately need to trim the top
off. However, there is a birds nest about half way up it (way below
where I intend to chop). Nest appears to be vacant, but I cannot be
certain. I think the birds are starlings.

Is there any time I can safely assume the nest would be vacant in order
to perform the appropriate chopping of the tree?

All starling chicks have flown the nest here (Leeds). All the nests in
our
Leylandii are vacant now. I'd say it was a good time, bird-wise.

You may well be right but I have looked on the RSPB web site and can't
find
any details of when different birds nest, lay eggs, hatch, and fledge.
Perhaps I'm just not putting in the right questions.

It's just from observation of bird activity (a lot) in our very tall
Leylandi.

I wondered about the starling identification too because of the location,
our starlings nest in holes in the eaves. Perhaps it's a blackbird's nest -
they do sometimes have two (rarely here) or even (very rarely here) three
hatches.

It would certainly be a good idea to leave it until early autumn to be
sure - cooler too :-)

Mary