Checking In At the Insect Hotel and the Cosy Bird House

As a keen supporter of wildlife, I was impressed with the insect hotels I saw recently on our visit to the National Trust kitchen garden at Packwood House, featured in my last post.  I particularly like insect hotels because at the same time as providing a shelter and nesting area for insects in your garden, you also have a piece of sculpture to look at.

A closer look at this one shows a happy bee checking things out.

We have a small one tucked away in a sheltered area of our garden and although I've never witnessed any creatures going in and out of it, the tubes do seem to get blocked up so obviously it does have residents who make use of it and seal themselves in, so its nice to know its being used ...

I found this one particularly delightful (again, National Trust kitchen garden) but it would probably need to be located somewhere fairly sheltered to remain weatherproof during the winter months

Also in our garden, we have a bird nesting box which must have done wonders for the blue tit population in our area as it seems to be permanently busy in the spring time.

With the Catapultoes around, we are very careful about encouraging birds onto the ground in the garden.  However, the smaller birds who feed in the trees are fast and careful.  Mr Cocopopia managed to spot this extremely well made German nest box tucked away in the "Garden Retro" section of a local vintage market and managed to negotiate a good deal on the price as it had been sitting around unsold for ages.  As well as raising their young in the spring, the birds also use it in the winter for shelter during bouts of bad weather.

I tried to capture some photos this evening of the parents flying in and out to feed their hungry family but unfortunately all of my pics came out a bit blurred as I couldn't get too close and the birds were very fast ...

Returning with a grub / some grub

About to deliver the grub

Off to find some more