National Nest Box Week

National Nestbox Week is a well-established part of the ornithological calendar.  Celebrated from February 14th each year, it puts the spotlight on breeding birds and asks everyone to put up more nestboxes.  Visit our website for a great range of nestboxes for the birds in your garden.

As well as creating feeding havens in our gardens it is essential to provide nesting sites to help our bird populations grow.  We supply a selection of nest boxes to suit different species, providing a safe and cosy home to rear their young.  By providing nest boxes your garden can become both a feeding and breeding haven, and you can enjoy watching new bird life thrive.  Visit our nest box pages to view our range

Here at Rectory Farm we have a great splattering of nest boxes though the garden, farmyard, fields and spinneys to ensure there are plenty of breeding places for our birds.  As well as small birds we also have a kestrel box and a newly constructed owl box this summer.  We have placed the owl box on the hill at the back of the farm, near high hedges, field margins and between grass and arable fields.  By doing this we hope to provide the owls with a range of habitats in which to find plentiful food, a good safe shelter, and an amazing view! Visit us at the farm and walk our footpaths where you can see the owl box in full view, lets hope for some residents this Spring!

In addition to erecting bird boxes ourselves, we also work in partnership with South Leicester Birdwatchers who have built and put up countless bird boxes over the farm through the past 20 years.  The group monitor these boxes which gives us a great indication of success of breeding birds on the farm.  Our thanks to Brian, Roger and Dave from SLBW for visiting in November to monitor the nest boxes here at Rectory Farm and ready them for the next season.  This year we were so pleased to find tree sparrow, great and blue tit nests in the spinney over the hill from the farm adjacent to the Eyebrook Reservoir.  As you can see from the photos these beautiful nests are a wonder of nature. They are packed with a range of nesting material from twigs and grasses, leaves and moss, moving to beautifully soft sheep’s wool and feathers as a final liner. Looking at these cosy nests makes you realise just how much work goes into creating them, and it demonstrates how important it is to feed the birds to supply them with the energy to successfully do this.