On 22 May two years ago I was glued to a monitor that showed a nest packed with nine energetic blue tit chicks, all exercising freshly feathered wings and struggling to flutter up to the entrance hole. The babies would probably start to fledge any moment now, and I didn't want to miss the final seconds of this captivating avian soap opera. The action was taking place not on a nature reserve but in a plum tree in my modest garden. Inspired by the live wildlife footage I'd seen on Springwatch, I thought it would be fun to create my own version. So, earlier that spring, I wired my computer - an ordinary PC - to a specially adapted nestbox, bought on the internet, with a miniature roof-mounted camera to film any birds that moved in.
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