Hooligan attacks birds nest

A MYSTERY wildlife hooligan has struck at an Ipswich garden centre vandalising birds nest and killing the young.

For the last few years blackbirds have taken to building their nests in the plant displays at Homebase's garden department at Warren Heath.

This year robins have also been attracted to the pot plants to nest and a raise their young.

But the sanctuary of the green houses has proved not to be so safe.

Staff arrived at work on Sunday to discover the robin's nest had been interfered with.

Garden centre assistant Linda Glazebrook believes it is the work of a person not an animal.

She said: "Up until yesterday we also had a robins nesting for the first time.

They had five or six eggs but when we came in on Sunday morning the nest looked all misshapen and all but one of the eggs had disappeared.

"Someone or something must have interfered with it last night.

"It's a real shame they made such a neat little nest and someone had to ruin it.

"There was no sign of broken eggs so it was probably not a cat."

This is not the first time such an atrocity has happened.

A blackbird nesting there was looking after three young until a couple of weeks ago when staff discovered the babies lying dead on the floor one morning.

Linda said: "They had no feathers yet and their eyes were not open so would not have been trying to fly yet."

Fortunately the blackbird has built herself a new nest among some geraniums and is raising her second clutch of hatchlings.

The original nest had been signposted to ensure customers took care near it, but the new nest is unmarked so as not to draw attention to itself.

Last year staff reported that a pair of blackbirds, possibly the same ones, had three nests and successfully reared young in all of them.

N What do you think of these crimes? Do you know who is responsible? Write in to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk or visit the forum at www.eveningstar.co.uk.