Birdwatch at RSPB Pulborough Brooks

BIRDS will nest in unlikely places; we can put up artificial sites and try to help them as much as we like but, ultimately, the birds themselves will decide what is best for them.

Sometimes their choices can be a little difficult to understand. This year I have seen sparrows in a swift box, blue tits in a sparrow box, great tits in an air conditioning vent and a tree tube, robins and pied wagtails nesting on ledges designed for swallows, while the swallows have again chosen to nest on a light fitting.

To cap it all, on the brooks there is a swans' nest with six eggs in, right in the middle of a gateway through which we frequently move cattle, tractors and so on. We will wait until the eggs have hatched before we use that route again.

Many young birds are appearing all over the site now '“ mid May is the peak of breeding season activity for most species. Many species lay eggs during April and consequently their offspring are fledging about a month later.

Most songbirds incubate their eggs for about two weeks and the young spend about another two weeks in the nest before fledging.