The other day I hung an old storm lantern over my back door and by the end of the day a robin had begun building a nest in it.

I was so excited when I saw it busily carrying dead leaves and moss into the cavity, because this meant I now had two pairs of robins nesting in the garden.

Robins are very territorial and pairs will not tolerate competition, unless the food supply is plentiful and there is enough cover for them.

So I took this new arrival as a personal compliment for all the hard work I have put in to making my home and gallery in Thixendale a haven for wildlife.

Over the 17 years since I moved to Fotherdale I have planted a small woodland, a wildflower meadow and a great number of shrubs and plants. I have also dug a pond and stream for the birds as there was no water source here then.

The two pairs of robins are not altogether happy about sharing this abundance and so far one pair has commandeered the back of the garden and the other has the front, with the house acting as an invisible frontline between them.

I’m not sure how this uneasy truce will play out as the breeding season progresses, since although the new pair at the back of the house has settled into the storm lantern comfortably, the pair at the front keeps trying to construct a nest in the spare wheel of my Landcruiser.

I have tried to deter this pair, since I really need to use my car most days and a moving vehicle is hardly a secure environment in which to raise a new brood of robins. I’ve even tried driving it 40 metres away to the car park outside my gallery, but the robins keep finding it and carry on with their construction. Robins are famous for choosing all kinds of unlikely locations to nest in and seem unafraid of raising their broods amidst human activity.

I once used an old kettle, which I used to keep plant labels in, as a nest box. I got the idea after watching a robin perch on its handle whilst I was gardening. I decided to turn the kettle on its side and nail it to the fence and sure enough the robin took to it easily.

It was fascinating to then watch as they built the nest inside, using just their beaks to create a cup shape out of dead leaves and moss and lining it with hair.

The different ways in which birds build their nests is the subject of a new exhibition currently on show at my gallery in Thixendale.

I have secret cameras at 12 different nesting sites hidden all over my garden and have wired these to TV screens in the gallery so that visitors can watch these master builders as they work.

So far the nest sites are occupied by two birds of prey; a tawny owl and a barn owl; a wren; a blackbird; a tree sparrow and a perniticky blue tit that can’t make its mind up which nest box to choose and keeps flitting in and out of several to try them for size.

The tawny owl has already laid two eggs and visitors can watch her as she incubates what surely must be the most precious eggs this Easter.

On show are a collection of pictures of birds I painted after watching them nest in unusual sites and all my photographs of different species at the nest site.

I have collected samples of different nesting materials for families to feel and have a range of nest boxes for them to put their hands into so they can try them for size – including an old log once used by a woodpecker.

Easter Nests is open from 9.30am to 4.30pm weekdays and 10.30am to 4.30pm on weekends at The Robert Fuller Gallery, Fotherdale Farm, Thixendale, YO179LS, robertefuller.com until April 26.