I'm delighted to welcome back to the blog Derek Niemann, who's been building a bit of birdie 'real estate' in time for the BTO's National Nestbox Week:

House hunting began in my garden this morning. There were two - no, three - couples inspecting, but thankfully, while they weren’t exactly time-wasters, they hadn’t got as far as making a down payment of straw in their new homes.

Blue Tits and Great Tits were popping in and out of both nestboxes under our eaves after sunrise to size them up. The ambitious 'sparrow' three-hole terrace has only ever held one nesting pair of tits per year, but both Blues and Greats have occupied it over the last ten years. I widened the hole in the corner nestbox to accommodate a curious House Sparrow some time ago, but this box is now what you might call “structurally unsound” – a large, widening crack giving it an open-fronted appearance.The House Sparrow colony has dispersed from our neighbourhood, but, every spring, Starlings have made desperate but vain attempts to enter. It was time for action!

I’ve used the nestbox designs on the RSPB website for all of my boxes (follow the link here and click on the Make a Nestbox link on the right-hand side for diagrams). B&Q sell pine planks that are a fraction bigger than the regulation width, but it’s a simple job to size up the dimensions. A happy morning sawing and nailing left me with a box to paint (on the outside only) with friendly timber treatment. The drizzle set in as I mounted the ladder at dusk to pull down the ladybird-encrusted old box and replace it with my bijou Starling residence. Starter home in situ. Now we’ve just got to wait.

Coincidentally, my Starling nestbox went up this week too, so you get a photo of its erection in progress.

And if you and woodwork don't get on together (I'm in that camp too), then there's always the option of buying from the RSPB online shop and raising money for conservation in the process. Happy home building! Adrian.