Soon after I moved in here, I was bought a decorative bird house, which got put on the side of my garage, just above the trunk of my espaliered pear tree. In retrospect, it wasn’t in a good position to be useful to birds – too close to the ground, so too many people (i.e. me) about. But, as I say, it was decorative and would have been lost higher up a wall.
All the time it has been there, not a single bird has nested in it. Until this year. I am not entirely sure what they are, as they come and go so fast, but there have been a couple of birds visiting the box. This year, I let the pear tree grow out a bit , and as a result, there is more growth around the box, and so it is more protected.