Sunday 29 May 2011

Executive nestbox

Hebridean residents can be very inventive in finding uses for old vehicles. Chicken sheds, kennels, green houses etc. The fisherman / fireman / estate maintenance man who came to fix the tap washer in our rented 'wee hoos' on Colonsay cut off the cab from his old landrover when it finally bit the dust and uses it as a garden shed.  Others, applying the principles of human pace I espoused in my last post, leave them to gently ooze their elements back into the earth over a decade or three.

Phil Gates' recent post on starlings (another closet member of the starling fan club comes out) has prompted me to dig out these photos showing another technique. The once proud owner of this limo obviously decided that the best thing was to let it splutter its last then place it carefully in a prominent spot on North Uist so that starlings could have it as a nestbox and everyone could have an uninterrupted view.  And the starlings duly obliged, gaining access to the lovely warm and dry wheel arch through the rot hole in the rear wing where the electric aerial once impressed people by easing itself up and down, germanically.





The flashiest starling nest site in the world.....?


Click here for yet more in praise of starlings.

2 comments:

  1. Really interesting Allan. There used to be regular flocks od starlings around this area but no longer unfortunately. Think I may place a few old cars about the place and see what happens!!

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  2. Good plan Steve. Just remember that you have to place them in as prominent a spot as you possibly can so that they can be seen from miles around....

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