Posted By: marktime
Posted watching a family of blue-tits, ( Parus caeruleus teneriffae)

Yes we've got a family nest of seven in a gable end box I installed a few years ago. It's rigged with a mini camera linked to the TV, makes great breakfast viewing. The nest box complete with camera has provided us with much enjoyment, an excellent buy.

@marctime

Now think through the possibility of nest building in an active gas flue. Who suffers do you think, from CO?

In which case it is a criminal offence to continue to run your heating...

I'm not sure what this "spin" and "internal life" thing is about, though, or what your point is.

The request was for a simple fact: examples of a nesting birds being left alone costing money, and I provided one with a link so people could look.

The irony is that someone has had all that money added to their water bills (or work not done) for the sake of one example of a species which is not under any measure of threat whatsoever, which may well have happily nested somewhere else if immediately moved. I wonder why the cost of providing services (or building houses :-) is so high?

The conservation status page for Pied Wagtails is here:
http://www.bto.org/birdtrends2010/wcrpiewa.shtml

Have to say I was quite surprised that there was an example just down the road from just a couple of days ago.

If we are going to do it properly, perhaps if you get a sparrow's nest in your garden we should make you move into a hotel for a month and build a fence to exclude the postman to make *completely* sure that it cannot be disturbed?

A reasonable balance is needed, and we haven't got it. I'd say that blanket protection of things that don't need protecting under threat of criminal sanction brings the whole process into disrepute.

Rgds

Ferdinand