Thread-hog back again!
Needed to share my ethical dilemma. In short, I had some river sand delivered to use as the base for laying pavers and to top dress some of the lawn area. I'd made a good start on both projects, but on the weekend I noticed a burrow in the remaining sand pile. It looked a lot like a pardalote nest, so I set up a motion sensing camera to find out if it was being actively managed. Here is one of the 300-odd images that were taken:
It is a striated pardalote nest and there are birds in and out all day, so obviously getting ready to lay eggs soon. Eggs take about 19 days to hatch and then another three weeks until the chicks fledge. So my choices are to quickly remove the sand pile before they lay eggs so they start nesting again somewhere else, or leave the pile there for another six weeks or so and let them have a go at nesting. I am leaning towards swapping projects and leaving the pile for the birds, but it means an unfinished task (which is a problem for me as I really like finishing things before moving onto other 'big' projects) and it is quite messy being right at the front entrance to the house.
What would you do?
(PS - they are really pretty birds - very small but with a relatively loud voice for their size)