I have a clematis over my front door and obviously it's not in leaf now.
However we have 2 nests there and usually the birds vacate the nests for
the winter. One nest is still fully occupied and dropping its "droppings"
over my pansies in a pot. Why have the birds chosen not to go away this
year? If I take the nest away, would the birds be able to make another
elsewhere ? or would they suffer? if so they can lodge on a little longer.
--
Judith Lea

In article , Judith Lea
writes
I have a clematis over my front door and obviously it's not in leaf now.
However we have 2 nests there and usually the birds vacate the nests for
the winter. One nest is still fully occupied and dropping its "droppings"
over my pansies in a pot. Why have the birds chosen not to go away this
year? If I take the nest away, would the birds be able to make another
elsewhere ? or would they suffer? if so they can lodge on a little longer.

One or more birds are using the nests to roost in - nice, warm, secure
places to spend the cold nights. If you take it away they will have to
find somewhere else and you will have to live with your conscience! Once
the weather warms up, it is likely that they will choose somewhere else
anyway, though perhaps not for some weeks.

Can you not put up a ledge under the nest so that the droppings fall on
that and not on your pansies? It doesn't have to be very big. Or, I
suppose, you could move your pansies......?

--
Malcolm

in article , Judith Lea at
wrote on 4/2/03 9:30 pm:

I have a clematis over my front door and obviously it's not in leaf now.
However we have 2 nests there and usually the birds vacate the nests for
the winter. One nest is still fully occupied and dropping its "droppings"
over my pansies in a pot. Why have the birds chosen not to go away this
year? If I take the nest away, would the birds be able to make another
elsewhere ? or would they suffer? if so they can lodge on a little longer.

I'd move the pot, never a nest. I think you might find it's not that it's
still occupied but that it's new occupants. Birds here are nest-building
already. We have just the same situation by the front door and the door
into the courtyard. They've never nested there before, so we've just moved
anything within range. And we're careful walking in and out. ;-) Life gets
so potentially messy here when the rookery is in full flow that I sometimes
think we should issue customers with umbrellas for one area of the garden -
even on the driest of days! I got 'christened' more than once last year!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk

"Malcolm" wrote in a message:

Can you not put up a ledge under the nest so that the droppings fall on
that and not on your pansies? It doesn't have to be very big. Or, I
suppose, you could move your pansies......?

---
I used to have sparrow droppings falling on my plants from a nest under the
eaves of my house. Not content with that, each spring, the blighters would
attack my primrose petals, turning them into confetti like scraps. Now all
our sparrows have long since gone and I quite miss them.

DeVille

In article , Sue & Bob
Hobden writes
Judith, you don't say which type of bird is roosting there,

I can't tell one bird from another, they are small, sort of bird size.

Please don't remove the nest until it's no longer needed, possibly April!

No, I won't move the nest at the moment. However, if I do move it in the
Spring, what will the returning occupants do?

I actually think you're quite lucky, what's a few Pansies? :-)

Thank you, you are quite right. Thanks to all who offered advice - now,
do I need to leave out any food for them as the ground is fairly well
frozen and worms will be scarce.
--
Judith Lea

in article , Judith Lea at
wrote on 5/2/03 8:15 pm:

In article , Sue & Bob
Hobden writes
Judith, you don't say which type of bird is roosting there,

I can't tell one bird from another, they are small, sort of bird size.

Please don't remove the nest until it's no longer needed, possibly April!

No, I won't move the nest at the moment. However, if I do move it in the
Spring, what will the returning occupants do?

I actually think you're quite lucky, what's a few Pansies? :-)

Thank you, you are quite right. Thanks to all who offered advice - now,
do I need to leave out any food for them as the ground is fairly well
frozen and worms will be scarce.

Yes and yes. Anything you leave will be a bonus, anyway. Fat balls are
good now, too. I put one out the other day and it was gone by the next
mid-day!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk

In article , Sue & Bob Hobden
writes
We did have House
Martins nesting under our eaves at the E. side of the house when the house
was first built but when I first repainted it I had to remove the nests and
they never came back.

When we repainted we painted round the nests! The birds would zoom in to
feed the youngsters while we were up the ladder, paintbrushes in hand
))

--
Jane Ransom in Lancaster.
I won't respond to private emails that are on topic for urg
but if you need to email me for any other reason,
put jandg dot demon dot co dot uk where you see deadspam.com