Bird's nest in the garden

This nest was found while weeding an overgrown part of the garden last spring:

Close-up of the nestI had forgotten about these images until I started working through some of my photo libraries. Last April I was digging out a badly overgrown part of the garden, I then dug out a huge thistle, carted it off to the compost heap and on return found this abandoned nest. I knew it was abandoned as the egg were cold – not surprising as I had been working in the vicinity for a few days.

I believe these eggs to be that of a partridge – we have many in this area as much of the surrounding farmland is used for commercial shooting of pheasants and partridges. Every summer large numbers of new birds are released in the nearby woods and copses. We often have some sheltering overnight in the garden.

I took a number of photos to create a ‘photo story’ – these are the best:

Finding the nest
Finding the nest - you can see the weeding in progress
Looking down at the nest
Looking down at the nest amongst the remaining weeds

 

A closer view of the nest
A view closer to the nest
Another close view of the nest
A second closer view of the nest
another view showing the setting
Another view showing the setting of the nest

showing the size in cm
Showing the size of the nest in cm
Showing the size in inches
Showing the size of the nest in inches
2 eggs in the studio v1
A view of 2 eggs in the studio
2 eggs in the studio v2
Another view of 2 eggs in the studio
2 eggs laying on hay v1
Showing 2 eggs laying on hay
2 eggs laying on hay v2
Another view of 2 eggs laying on hay