Lockdown challenge

DURING England’s second lockdown, I set myself a challenge to keep me distracted and use my time to help conservation. This involved making and distributing 13 Little Owl nestboxes and 10 Tawny Owl boxes. I achieved this by contacting local farmers across my area in order to get permission to erect the boxes on their land. Hopefully these will be successful next year – something to look forward to.

In the meantime, the process of creating these nestboxes gave me focus and a positive feeling, hoping I might have made a difference. I went on to make 22 feeders to donate to local care homes, with the hope of keeping the residents focused to help with their mental health in this difficult time.

I found it very rewarding when one of the residents spoke to me through her bedroom window. She told me that I had brought joy to her mornings as she watches the birds feeding. Harriet Day, via email