Wild birds 

When we first moved to Redhall there were very few birds around - that certainly isn't the case now!

Since we started putting out food and planting lots of trees, shrubs etc. which give them cover we have lots of wild birds. My brother, James, spent a winter building nest boxes which he and John put up in the mature trees which were here. Some of them are still used 25 years later.

The list of wild birds could go on and on - finches, tits, sparrows, siskins, blackbirds, thrushes, gold crests, pigeons, wood peckers, jays, crows, owls, sparrow hawks, buzzards etc. etc. A pair of hen harriers nested in one of our trees one year - raised young but were later shot,(?) In any case, they disappeared, but I later found one carcase.

Living, as we do, as an island in an area of 'Sporting' estates, the shooting, trapping and killing of 'predators' is to be expected. I once managed to rescue a buzzard from a crow trap. It had injured and exhausted itself trying to get free. I picked it up from the trap, laid it down while I closed the door again and it managed to fly away before I got back. I like to think it's offspring may still live on in those who circle the field by the house. Since stricter penalties have been introduced more Buzzards are around, mainly living off road-kill and young rabbits - I've never known one kill any of our young birds - much less eating on them than a nice, plump, albeit squashed, rabbit.