Boids and stuff

In my garden there is a dovecote which looks a bit like a rocket taking off. I thought maybe flocks of local doves would elbow each other out of the way to take up residence, but no. It gets pigeons and occasional smaller birds. They all take a look around and then disappear. 

But a lot of people have commented in it and seem to like it, maybe because it is tall and adds a bit of shape and colour. 

One bloganonymous person in particular liked it and thought one would look good in her garden. It's no fun just repeating things, so I made hers to different design. It looked like this under construction:

 And like this when it was finally erected:

End of the story ? Not quite.

The plan was to feed the birds as well as put them up in a posh bird-squat, and we talked about putting a platform round the post to put bird food on.

But then she came up with the idea of a bird table and a fancy design, and I like a challenge.

This is the basic thing under way. The whole thing is oak, mahogany and beech. The hardest thing by far was cutting the slots in the little walls. The slots, oddly, do not go right the way through, which would have been easy. I made a jig in the end which cut slots in one long strip of beech which I then to cut into four pieces for the sides.

And this is it in the shed, with base and flat roof, just being glued up. I'd love to tell you that the shed is usually beautifully tidy.

It has just been painted here, and you have to imagine it without yogurt pots, which are not part of the overall chic bird-magnetism. The roof is slate, and the chimney effect is because at this point we were undecided about whether it would hang, or be free-standing on a post.

Here it is, all done. There is a ginormous ring on top, and it was going to hang up. But from what ? In the end there was nothing handy to hang it from, and it went on a post. I had made an alternative top, with a small finial, and it was easy enough to swap the two over on site.

Birds do like this table, but they have to fight the squirrels for it. The squirrels are BIG fans, and seem to enjoy just sitting in it, gazing round twitchily, as squirrels do.

Envoi

This is an experiment that I have just put at the the bottom of my own dovecote. It is intended as an insect haven. At least even the most curious squirrels do not stand a chance with this. Will the bugs love it ? We shall see....