Daily Mail

Nest in a bike? Saddle do nicely!

- By Isabella Fish

TO some it was just a rusty bicycle ready for the scrapheap. But for a mother wren, it became the perfect home for her fledgling family.

The enterprisi­ng bird built a nest out of grass and twigs inside the saddle to house her four chicks.

The happy result was captured on camera by an amateur wildlife photograph­er in Port Ramsay on the Isle of Lismore, western Scotland.

Teenie Wilson, 60, said: ‘My neighbours told me to have a look in their garden because some wrens had built a nest in one of their old bikes. I was quite astounded to discover that there were chicks in the saddle too.’

Mrs Wilson, who runs a shop and post office with her husband David, 63, said it took her an hour to get her pictures.

‘Unfortunat­ely I could only capture three of the chicks because they kept burying away in the saddle, but there were actually four of them.

‘I didn’t want to distress the mother so I left after an hour.’

The pictures were taken in June and the wrens are thought to have now moved on.

 ??  ?? On yer beak: The mother wren with her young
On yer beak: The mother wren with her young
 ??  ?? Hidden home: The bike, saddle circled, in the back garden
Hidden home: The bike, saddle circled, in the back garden

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