Flap over bird boxes (From Leigh Journal)

Flap over bird boxes

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BIRD lover George Taylor was unhappy to see a pile of discarded bird boxes at Leigh’s Slag Lane tip when he went to dump some old tiles.

On visits there over the past 20 years he had enjoyed seeing birds around the numerous boxes and stands made by the workforce, and was angry that they had been ordered to remove them.

He asked me to find out the official reason and it’s as follows: “Slag Lane was subject to a clean up and site maintenance repairs inspection recently.

Several parts of the fence line where identified as in need of repair due to holes and areas where chain link fencing that had come away from support posts.

The 'bird boxes' have been removed by the site management contractor because various boxes around the site consisted of items salvaged from the skips like old containers and watering cans.

It had been noted by the supervisory staff that many of the containers were possibly harbouring vermin such as rats and mice. The containers had also been tied ad-hoc to the fencing by a previous well meaning site attendant adding weight to the chain link which along with the overhanging trees had caused the fencing to sag and come away from the concrete supports.

None of the boxes removed showed signs of recent use by birds and predominately where in a rotten or unsuitable condition.”

The good news is that the Lancashire Wildlife trust will provide new bird boxes to be placed outside of the Waste management site in the surrounding wooded area, which should hopefully be installed before the start of the spring nesting season.