BIRD LOVER Maureen Skinner has put her life on hold to nurture seven baby Great Tits abandoned by their mother at just several days old.

Last week, Maureen, 63, of Watermead, Stratton St Margaret, noticed that the newborn birds’ parents had left the nest and the babies were crying out to be fed.

She shooed away an intruding magpie from the nest box in her back garden and brought the birds in to safety in her own home.

For the past week, she has kept a close eye on the seven feathered friends, who she describes as her ‘babies’, in the hope that within the next few days they will be ready to fly the nest for good.

Every hour, from 7am until 8pm every day, she feeds the birds a concoction of raw mince, scrambled egg and grated cheese using a pair of tweezers as recommended by friend and bird expert Steve Osbourn.

She said: “Without Steve’s advice I wouldn’t have known what to do and the birds probably wouldn’t have made it,” she said.

“There is one tiny bird which I call Baby Baby, and I keep my eye on him to make sure he gets extra food, his feathers haven’t quite formed properly yet but I am hoping he will be ok.

“The first day I brought them in they were so hungry they had no fear of me at all.”

Maureen said it was an achievement in itself to have attracted Great Tits into her garden, let alone see seven babies born there.

She said: “We had a new bird box put up recently which was to attract Blue Tits, but one day we saw a Great Tit looking at it, and they are much bigger birds and the hole wasn’t big enough for him, so we adjusted the box and now this has happened, its is really quite an achievement.”

Maureen and her husband Graham, 68, were due to go away to their holiday home this week but have put their plans on hold to ensure the birds are taken care of.

Maureen said: “My life is on hold at the moment, it is like having children but the good thing about it is at about 8pm they go quiet because they go to sleep until 7am the next day so I get to catch up with my energy and relax.

“They are hungry little things and need feeding every hour.

“I have to take them out of the box one by one to ensure they all get fed, and they stretch their little necks up and open their mouths. I am really enjoying it, and I have said to my husband we can’t go away now because I have to see it all through.

“This morning I came down and noticed one of the birds had come out of the nest and was perched on the little branch I have put up against it in my kitchen which was lovely.

“They have to do it naturally though, it is no good just letting them out and telling them to fly off.”

Maureen is expecting the birds, which she thinks are about 18 days old, to be ready to leave the nest within the next couple of days.