BIRD-LOVERS went out of their way to help house their feathered friends with help from the Essex Wildlife Trust nature reserve at Abberton Resevoir.As garden birds currently continue their search for a good place to build a nest to bring up their young, people at the trust's visitors centre set about making their own bird boxes.

BIRD-LOVERS went out of their way to help house their feathered friends with help from the Essex Wildlife Trust nature reserve at Abberton Resevoir.

As garden birds currently continue their search for a good place to build a nest to bring up their young, people at the trust's visitors centre set about making their own bird boxes.

For blue tits, traditional style boxes were made with holes in the front. But robins prefer no front to their homes, so special boxes were also made for them.

"After the volunteers had made their own bird boxes they also made some for the reserve itself," said organiser Jo Calvert, the senior reserves warden.

"They will be put up in the next few weeks, and hopefully will be used by birds this year.

"We have boxes on the reserve because there is not a lot of woodland so there aren't many places for birds to nest," she explained.