Boxing Clever

Countryside ranger John Knight has spent seven days putting up the boxes in Herons Wood, off Dappers Lane.

He carried out the work during National Nest Box Week, a nationwide bird conservation initiative organised by the British Trust for Ornithology.

Young members of the Sussex Wildlife Trust Watch group made the boxes, to provide safe nesting sites for birds such as blue tits, great tits and robins.

Said John, who works along the coastal plain for West Sussex County Council: "By putting up a nest box, we are providing our wildlife with an invaluable and safe nesting site, a resource that is quickly disappearing these days.

"They can also give people hours of pleasure by offering the chance to watch birds undertaking their nesting duties."

A few weeks ago, just a short distance from the wood, contractors were at work clearing many trees and hedgerows from the line of the Angmering bypass.

The work was arranged for the beginning of the year before the nesting season began. At sites such as the end of High Street, dozens of trees were felled.