Robins in my shed...

tanith

Not strictly gardening but need a bit of advice... I have had Robins nesting in my garden for seveal years but this year it seems that want the comfort of my garden shed... they have built a nest on the top shelf in there and I am worried that my going in and out will disturb them or make them abandon the eggs... Where the nest is its quite out of the way and I can just go in and get what I need without going near it . So is it likely they will just go ahead and lay and raise a family with me going in and out or will I have to stay away while they are there? They have raised 3 broods in past years in the hedge so its going to be a while if I have to stay out...:eek:

zzzLazyDaisy

Can't help with robins, but when I was growing up we had a pair of blackbirds nesting in our shed every year - there were three of us kids going in and out for bikes etc (and having the occasional nosey) but they always successfully raised their brood and they always came back. They only stopped when my dad dismantled the shed to make room for a garage. So good luck!

frivolous_fay

Robins will feed out of your hand if they get tame enough... so fingers crossed they'll tolerate you walking in and out!

margaretclare

Oh lovely.

I talked to a lady at our nearest county Wildlife Trust Visitor Centre recently. We've had a robin box and a titt box for several years, one year the robins used their box but not since. Reason I was talking to her: titt box now being used by sparrows, and I wanted to buy another one for titts. Male sparrows have now chosen their homes and are sitting in there poking heads out shouting for the females!!

Anyway, this lady said it's known that robins will make their own minds up where they want to nest, and often it's inconvenient to humans! You can provide them with a box and they'll use something else. She said she'd seen robins nesting in someone's garage in the fork of a motor-bike! Owner couldn't ride bike until nestlings had come off.

If you have a fishing shop near you, try offering them some mealworms. Mealworms to a robin are 'to die for'. Just like jam sandwiches are to the sick fox that I'm currently treating.

HTH

Margaret

M.E.

Many years ago robins nested in our bedroom. They came through the small open window, flew across the room to perch on a picture frame, then hopped onto the pelmet frame in the corner.
Mum complained at me that I was making the room messy with twigs (I was pressing flowers at the time). Imagine our surprise when we saw the robins making a nest in the corner on the pelmet (rather like a narrow shelf).
I put up my Easter egg box and low and behold they nested there.
Kept the window open anyway.
Fledglings caused some mess and would slide on the formica top (shows it was the 60's). Also the fledglings woke us up very early and we couldn't put the light on in the evenings as they would patter up and down the pelmet and also climb the net curtains.
It was the fledglings that were a nuisance rather than the adults, so Mum shut the window after they had flown.
In a garage.... if you can put up with the mess from the fledglings then go for it. They became very used to us (8 children!!!) watching and eventually picking them up when they got tangled in the net curtains. Took the old nest (in the easter egg box) into school for the Nature Table!!!!

tanith

Thanks for the advice.. our Robins are fairly tame and will flutter around me while I am gardening.. we did buy a proper Robin box 2yrs ago but they prefer to choose their own place to nest and I will just have to play it ear... hopefully as they are used to me feeding them each day they will tolerate my presence near the nest... it seems the nest they usually use has been taken over by what I assume are sparrows its a small brown bird... so I am looking forwards to all the babies...

margaretclare

Small brown bird...possibly either a dunnock or a wren? If house sparrows then please welcome them, as they're been in decline in many areas for the last few years. A male sparrow has quite distinctive markings, black markings on his face. As I wrote earlier, the male sparrows are the ones choosing their nest site and shouting loudly for a mate.

HTH

Margaret

relay

Male Robins usually build 2 or 3 nests within the same territory then the female choses which one she prefers, so if you did carry on going in & out of the shed they would more than likely just use another nest instead.