NESTS

In between the rain and the snow and the hail and the thunder and lighting it has been quite sunny. It has made me think about spring. The snowdrops have been out for ages, the crocus are trying their best and I even saw a brave primrose trying to push out a flower to attract early flying insects. However, the thing that drew my attention today was a Raven flying over the cliffs at Stoer with a long birch twig hanging from his beak. You see for them the breeding season has already begun. By the time you read this they will probably have eggs in the nest.
Some other birds also nest very early. Tawny Owls get going early because the mice and voles on which they feed are easier to see early in the season before the vegetation gets too thick and the prey harder to catch. Grey Herons around here start to lay their eggs in March and sometimes even February. As a result they have their young in the nest by late April. The advantage is that the aquatic vegetation is not so dense and the fish easier to see. However, the earliest must be the Crossbill whose preferred diet is Scots’ Pine. The easiest time for Crossbills to get at the seeds is when they are ripening and the cones are just starting to open. For Scots’ pines his happens from
early spring. So you often get Crossbills sitting on eggs in January or February.

I have a collection of old nests in the office here and I must say that each one is really a work of art. I remember doing an exercise once with a bunch of teenagers where we each had to build a nest, to be suspended from the legs of any upside down chair, using any material we could find outside. It had to be built strong enough to support the weight of a brick. I am not sure what sort of eggs we were meant to be laying. Nevertheless it was much harder than you can imagine. Now, I’m not much of a knitter and I’ve never tackled weaving before especially with bits of grass and reeds and birch twigs, so needless to say there is a large dent in the floor where the brick fell through.

And if you think it is hard work building one nest, what about the poor wee male Wren who has to build three or four or even five nests so that the female can chose the one she likes best. Dear help him if his mate is a bit picky.

I suppose a good nest is one that is strong but also warm and cosy. Birds nests come in all sorts of shapes and sizes from the dinky domed nestballs of Goldcrests, the lichen and cobweb variety used by Long-tailed Tits to the 3m stick platforms used by eagles.
I remember being very impressed in Africa by the Weaver birds that don’t just build one nest but build huge apartment blocks for 300-400 families. The massive stacks of dried grass can be over 100 years old and weigh several tonnes. If you are a Weaver bird you had better stick your name down soon: I’m told there is a big waiting list.
The most lucrative nest, which I read about recently in the BBC Wildlife magazine, must be the creamy white nest built entirely of SPIT by the swiftlet. These are what is used to make birds-nest soup and people are so keen on them that they cost as much as gold. The swiftlets have started nesting on people’s homes, which I suppose for the owner is like money falling from the skies. However, before you get too excited and start buying stereos to blare out swiflet calls to encourage the birds to nest on the side of your croft house, think again: they only live in darkest Indonesia.

So if you ever have a free afternoon and want to practice the long lost art of nest building you will need LOTS of grass, 15 beak fulls of leaves, 267 cobweb, a pillow full worth of feather and plenty of spit. And if it fails you can always make it resulting tangle into soup for the family.

Andy Summers
Highland Council Ranger for Assynt

Contact us: Email:info At culagwoods.org.uk Tel:01571 844368 Address: CCWT, 1 Old Coach House, Lochinver, Sutherland, Scotland, IV27 4LE