As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Monday, 2 May 2016

Stone the crows! Giant bird’s nest discovered in Combe Martin

17:31 20 April 2016


Eight foot structure at community centre contained scraps of clay pipe and a parking ticket from the 1990s...

Jaws dropped when a giant bird’s nest was discovered in the roof of Combe Martin Community Centre.

The construction of twigs and litter is thought to have been made by jackdaws over decades and stood around eight feet high.

Incredibly, according to parish clerk Michelle Beaumont, it appeared the loft insulation had been neatly cut to fit around it.

When former owner Devon County Council was queried, an email said the only birds able to make a nest that big would be ‘an eagle or an osprey’ and blamed it on a ‘colony of rodents’.

Michelle said they had been worried about the weight of the nest on the ceiling and so it had to be removed.

“It’s like a pyramid shape that started as a small nest that has been added to over the years,” she said.

“When they cleared it they found things like a bit of clay pipe. It was a health hazard, because you get little beasts in it and it’s not the sort of thing you could leave there.”

The nest also contained a parking ticket from the 1990s and newspaper scraps from that time.

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