Every week we hear from Cumbria Wildlife Trust on the sights and sounds of wildlife in our region.

This week in the column, we hear from Cumbria Wildlife Trust member Dyane Silvester who tells us of the delights of birds and their nests at this time of year.

Back in the Autumn I was guilty of not tidying up the garden but one morning a couple of weeks ago, watching a blackbird tugging out dead iris leaves to take back to her nest, I was glad I hadn't. It's that time of year again.

Whilst the blackbirds are weaving my iris leaves into their nests, a pair of pigeons are trying to break twigs off my acer for their nest in a leylandi across the road, and blue tits flit across the garden to next-door's bird box carrying strands of hair which I wedge into the shrubs. It used to be dog fur, but now I don't have a dog.

I think my favourite are hummingbird nests (though not in Cumbria!): they’re built with moss and feathers interwoven with spider silk - partly because it's strong, but also because it stretches as the chicks grow! Closer to home our native treecreepers, whose moss-and-feather nests are usually wedged into a crevice in the tree, also use spiderweb to build with. There are loads of them busy in the woods where I walk.

Pigeons build the structure of their nests with sticks and it remains a relatively loose structure hidden in a tree or hedge.

On an altogether different scale ospreys also build with sticks – but their nests are much stronger, and form a huge and very conspicuous platform in a treetop. Building artificial platforms has been an important part of the successful reintroduction of ospreys in the UK – it saves the birds a lot of effort! (They’re back again this year at sites in Cumbria.)

Some birds just nest in a hollow on the ground: grouse, snipe, woodcock on the moorlands where they are brilliantly camouflaged; lapwings and curlew on grassland where, sadly, they are vulnerable to insensitive land management and inappropriate mowing which might be at least partly be to blame for their falling numbers.

By early May we’ll hopefully see swifts returning; they seek holes in old buildings (or in Swift-boxes or -bricks) where they’ll nest in a dished hollow on a ledge.

Swallows and house martins build their homes with mud and spit – under your eaves if you’re lucky – and will come back the year after year to repair and re-use, so please don't clear them away as you’ll only make more work for them after a long flight.

Sand martins on the other hand dig burrows into sandy riverbanks, where there’s also a ready supply of midges over the water.

They’re gregarious too so the bank might be peppered with holes. Puffins dig nest burrows too, although they will use abandoned rabbit holes to save themselves the effort.

Although most birds' nests are lined with moss and feathers, their structures are as varied and amazing as the birds themselves.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust is the only voluntary organisation devoted solely to the conservation of the wildlife and wildplaces of Cumbria. The Trust stands up for wildlife, creates wildlife havens, and seeks to raise environmental awareness.

Cumbria Wildlife Trust is part of a partnership of 46 local Wildlife Trusts across the UK with more than 800,000 members and 2,300 reserves.