Birds' nests in unusual places

A mother thrush laid five eggs in the engine of a hired minibus at Claro Barracks, Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire. The Army had been renting the vehicle for 30 pounds a day and have to wait for the birds to fly the nest before they can return it; it has cost them about £1,000 so far.

A dove has been nicknamed Roxanne after the famous Police song after she built her nest in a red traffic light on a busy junction in Basildon, Essex

A pair of great tits and their new family have nested in a traffic cone in the grounds of Holt Hall, Norfolk...

...Chris Blake, head gardener at the field studies centre, said: "I went to move the cone before cutting the grass and when I lifted it up there were nine eggs in a nest. I went back a couple of weeks later and all of the eggs had hatched." The birds have now flown the nest.

A Little Owl sits in its nesting area in some silage bales on a farm in Winford near Bristol

Blue tits nest in an ashtray outside a cafe at Kylemore Abbey in County Galway, Ireland. The nest - complete with four little chicks - was spotted by cleaning staff. The cafe has now imposed a strict no smoking policy in the area surrounding the nest.

A family of blue tits have made their home in an ashtray at a pub. called The Cottage in Thorpe St Andrew, near Norwich. Landlord Ian Perry has now put up a notice telling customers not to stub out their cigarettes in the box.

Cigarette bins must seem very attractive to blue tits looking for somewhere to settle down. Staff at the RSPB's Vane Farm Nature Reserve by Loch Leven in Fife had set up specially-made nest boxes, but this female blue tit clearly preferred the ashtray.

A pair of great tits have made their nest in Adrian Rix's postbox on the gate of his timber yard at Tilney St Lawrence, near King's Lynn, Norfolk

Last year, a thrush set up its nest in a traffic light at a busy roundabout in Loughborough, Leicestershire. Motorist Mark Severn captured the nest on camera after spotting it as he drove past the A6 junction to Warwick

A blue tit perches on an ashtray located at Oceana Business Park in Wallsend, North Tyneside. A family of blue tits as set up their nest in the ashtray in 2010.