Men at work

Shamefully, even though I have nine years on the Reverend, he still outstrips me when it comes to work; the man just cannot sit still. I could claim my pre-op situation is the only difference between us, but I'd be lying.

Sending pensioners up trees? there must be a law against it. But we have Stock Dove boxes, Little Owl boxes and Starling boxes to going up at the moment. Local landowners are usually only too pleased to have such things. A few smaller boxes as well, though we tend to send a lot of these west to a friend's farm in Wales where several hundred boxes now hold plenty of Pied Flycatchers, Redstarts (and Dormice, our chum is a licenced handler).

Engaging with landowners can be the start of some very productive relationships.

You'd know one of the Reverend's small boxes if you saw one. The trademark is the entrance hole. For years now it has been placed smack in the middle by the majority of manufacturers, but if you offset, left or right, doesn't matter, you help provide darker corners for nestlings to shelter in; the Reverend has found that more broods get off from offset boxes.

When the Great Tits were ignoring three decent normal boxes down close to my allotment this spring, I tied a 'Reverend Mark 1' left hole special into the raspberries, and within the day they were building..