A BLACKBIRD determined to climb the property ladder has amazed a life-long countryman.Ex-farmer Ron Ling was stunned by the bird's persistence when it built seven nests in the rungs of a ladder hung sideways on the back of his garage.

A BLACKBIRD determined to climb the property ladder has amazed a life-long countryman.

Ex-farmer Ron Ling was stunned by the bird's persistence when it built seven nests in the rungs of a ladder hung sideways on the back of his garage. One nest at Ron's home near Saxmundham has three eggs in.

It is the perfect hidden nursery, protected from the wind and predators by a thick hedge 18 inches away along the length of the garage at Ron's Stratford St Andrew home.

Said 70-year-old Ron: "I have never in my life seen anything like this before and I have been in farming all my life.

"I desperately needed the ladder about a fortnight ago to do a job for a lady and when I came to get it I could not believe my eyes.

"There was a row of unfinished nests all along the ladder with perfect sides but no bases.

"I told the lady she would have to wait. I am not disturbing this."

Bird-lover Ron, who has lived at his Main Road home for 21 years, said: "I added a bit of unravelled garden string to the bottom of one nest and the bird has built a base on top. Afterwards came the eggs."

Ron is not sure they will hatch because he fears the female bird has died. He found a bird tangled in a wire fence nearby.

He said: "You see some amazing things in nature. I have seen 15 mad March hares race blind across a field; I've watched from my kitchen window as a brood of blue-tits learned to fly one by one, and I've seen a mouse drop dead of a heart attack at the sight of my cat. But this tops the lot."