Redstarts making themselves at home

I spent an enjoyable Sunday afternoon at the house of a friend on the edge of All Stretton. We had cups of tea, some rather delicious rock cakes and spent some time staring at a rusting air vent. After a few minutes this bird appeared with a beakful of food...

...had a quick look over her shoulder...

...then steadied herself...

...before diving in.

This is of course a female redstart, and she will be being kept busy by up to seven hungry beaks to feed in her nest inside this vent. The eggs would have taken a couple of weeks to hatch, and my guess is within another ten days the young in this nest will be fledging as it takes them about two and a half weeks to do so. 

Redstarts are simply fabulous birds - they are good looking, have a gorgeous scratchy song, have an endearing habit of quivering their tails and are one of our spring-bringers. In a few months times these birds weighing 15 grammes will depart the Shropshire Hills and perhaps head for northwest Africa - British ringed birds have previously been recovered in the Gambia and Senegal. We are lucky to have them in good numbers in Shropshire, they are declining across their European range and they would have just been passing through in my old home of Oxfordshire.

If you don't think that the female redstart is a good looking bird, then have a look at the male. What a bird...

We soon left them alone, redstarts are skittish birds and this was no time to try to get close up photographs. We headed back to Batch Valley, and what did I hear opposite my house that evening? A male redstart. Perhaps I should install an air vent in the side of my house...