That was the question facing mechanics at Bel Royal Garage when they found a robin caring for her eggs behind the headlight of a Kia Sportage this week.
The vehicle had been brought in by St Ouen parishioner Margaret Vining for some body work and, as she left the keys with mechanic Kenny Cabral on Tuesday, she asked them to clean the headlights too.
‘They took off the bits they needed to and there it was, a robin sat on a nest. They called me straight away and said obviously we cannot work on it,’ said the Islander, who lives near Les Landes racecourse.
‘A friend of mind put an appeal on Facebook and a local wildlife rehabilitator has given us some great advice and Tim Liddiard at the Environment Department has been brilliant.
‘The thing is, on Tuesday afternoon the robin left her eggs and started flying around the garage. I said to the guys down there if worse come to worst can we leave the car? But she’s gone off now somewhere. We think the male is in our garden, so we are leaving the car up here and hope they will return to the nest. We see lots of robins up here.’
Mrs Vining now says her normal car, which is used everyday, is stranded at her home playing host to three robin eggs. Luckily she has a second vehicle which she can use for her work commute.
‘You can’t actually see the nest through the lights – you have to take bits off. They [the mechanics] think the robin has got in there through the engine. I’ve no idea how long they have been in there, but they have been chauffeur driven around the Island,’ she added.
Robins usually sit on their eggs for 12 to 14 days. The female usually does all the incubating. Even in good weather, a female will rarely leave her eggs for more than five to ten minutes at a time. The longer the eggs are not incubated, the greater the chance they will not hatch.
Tim Liddiard, senior countryside officer for the Growth, Housing and Environment Department, said that in his opinion it would be unlikely that the mother robin would find her way back to the nest now. But he praised Mrs Vining and Bel Royal Garage for doing all they could.
‘Our advice is that if people find an active nest in a place like a bush that they plan on cutting, they should hold on for the winter. If it’s in a really inconvenient place that people feel really must be dealt with, they can contact the Growth, Housing and Environment Department on 441600.’
Certain birds are protected in Jersey under the Conservation of Wildlife Law (Jersey) Law 2000. A full list can be found online at gov.je.
