Country diary: A plough, a haybale – who would live in a house like this? | Nicola Chester

Hungerford, Berkshire: In a nearby farm, ever-resourceful birds and bees are getting creative with where they build their nests There are some unusual nesting spots being utilised in the farm and stableyard, revealed by pauses between chores. My wheelbarrow trips to the muck heap are attended by pied and grey wagtail pairs that make small aerial assaults on insects, though I’ve yet to locate their nests. The swallows are well-served here by midges and flies swarming around warm-blooded animals, and there is always mud for nest repairs, with the regular slosh of water buckets and hosing down of sweaty horses. New bales of hay must be opened with caution. Tash, who keeps her shire cross Jack here, narrowly avoids pulling down a robin’s nest inside one (the adult happily resettles on her eggs) and two years ago, one side of a haystack had to be avoided completely until a tawny owl had raised two owlets in it. To a seasonally redundant, reversible five-furrow plough, a pair of blue tits bring caterpillars in from the field oaks. They drop down a narrow shaft at the end of its hollow steel frame above the landwheel. In between visits, I peer in to find a long, thin nest, brimful of

Jun 6, 2026 → Jun 6, 2026