RESULTS of this year's Great Garden Birdwatch, conducted by the RSPB, showed that the house sparrow narrowly came in as top visitor with an average of 3.60 per garden, closely followed by the starling at 3.44 per garden and the blackbird in third place with 2.45.

Most people are accustomed to seeing house sparrows in their garden so it is hard to believe that their numbers are plummeting. We are told that combine harvesters and the ploughing in of stubble deprive the birds of a valuable source of feed. Add to this the fact that grain is no longer stored in barns, but blown directly into silos, and one begins to appreciate the hardships that these once very common birds must be experiencing.

With this in mind, as well as feeding garden birds I decided this year that I would also try to provide some extra breeding accommodation for them. Mine is not the ideal garden for nesting sites. It is very small and is situated in the middle of other house, albeit a very quiet spot.

I did have a blackbird successfully nest in a small hedge a couple of years ago, but nest boxes placed out of reach of the ever marauding cats is a far-better proposition. I duly looked on the Internet and found some designs.

My house sparrow terrace consists of three chambers and is mounted on the side wall of the house where I feel it will be best sheltered from the heat of the summer sun. It has been in situ for several weeks now and as yet, although sparrows have perched on the edge of the roof above, they don't seem to show any interest in these desirable residences'.

A consideration when building nest boxes is the size of the entrance hole. To limit the accommodation to a particular species the measurement has to be correct. For house sparrows it is 32mm, while for blue tits and coal tits it is 25mm, and great tits favour an entrance of 28mm.

I have also placed an open fronted nest box on my fence with a view to encouraging a robin to take up residence. I have trained some climbers and other plants to grow around it, once again hoping to avoid the attention of the local population of moggies, most of which, I'm glad to say, seem to have learned at last that they are not welcomed in my garden.

While on the farm last week I saw a nice lot of sheep wool in one of the fields. Gathering it up, the first thing that struck me was the horrendous smell. I brought it home in a plastic bag and immersed it in a bucket of hot soapy water for more than 24 hours. It came out gleaming white and, after a good rinse in clean water, was hung up beside the back door to provide some ideal nesting material for any birds that may want it. I'm sure my neighbours must think I've gone over the edge!

Most rewarding experience was after I had provided a tit box for some friends in Stoke St Gregory. It had only been placed in the lee of a small tree for a couple of weeks when I visited. We sat in the garden in the sunshine and soon noticed a very busy pair of blue tits going to the box carrying bundles of moss and grasses. Success!

Diary date: Sunday, April 20. Bincombe. Meet at crossroads, map ref ST183388, 10am. Led by John Connolly (Taunton 274272).