I HAVE just finished a painting of three tawny owl chicks balancing on a branch, their heads cocked inquisitively as they peer out of the picture.

The owlets were regular diners at my garden bird table over the summer and the painting is from photographs I took of them through my living room window.

My bird table is unusual in that it caters for birds of prey, in particular kestrels and tawny owls, alongside the seed-eating birds you are more likely to see in most people’s gardens.

Kestrels and owls mainly eat rodents, but they will take a garden bird, especially a young one, if the opportunity arises. Thankfully the ones that visit my garden know that I have left food for them and so they don’t bother.

As for the friendly robins and sparrows, they have learned to accommodate the birds of prey - simply flitting into a nearby shrub whenever a kestrel swoops in and then resuming their feed as soon as it leaves. Although some bold individuals actually feed alongside the kestrels.

At times the atmosphere can get a little edgy, but on the whole the arrangement works and I get to enjoy spectacular sightings of a great variety of birds for my paintings.

These unorthodox dining arrangements are to feature on BBC One’s The One Show this autumn, after a crew visited my garden in Thixendale this summer to film the birds at my table.

It all began one bitterly cold day 10 years ago when I spotted a young male kestrel hunting from my kitchen window. He wasn't having much luck and I was worried about his chances of surviving the winter ahead.

So I caught a mouse in a trap and put it out on a post near my bird table. By the end of the day the mouse had gone. The next day I popped another mouse out. This too disappeared.

It wasn’t long before this kestrel became a regular visitor and, struggling to catch enough mice, I found myself picking up road-kill rabbit and pheasant.

Then I discovered it was possible to buy dead day-old chicks, cockerels that are a by-product of the hen laying industry, and I began to order these to help the kestrel survive the winter.

The following Spring the kestrel brought a girlfriend along to share this regular food supply and I was absolutely delighted when they nested nearby.

Before long I was ordering chicks by the thousands to feed the kestrel’s expanding family, as well as a pair of tawny owls that had cottoned on to the evening service I was providing.

During the late summer months the tawny owls began to bring their chicks to the table and on one occasion I actually had 10 tawny owls balancing on the branch above the table at once.

Although this brought fantastic photographic opportunities, it also became a logistical challenge.

Not only did I need to ensure I had enough ingredients to keep up with their ever-expanding menus, I also needed to timetable the arrival times of my avian guests to avoid any serious consequences of a clash between predator and prey.

More than 60 species of garden birds visit my table over the course of a day and I begin each day by filling up the bird feeders and hanging fat bars.

I usually serve a cocktail of wild bird seeds, which includes nyjer seeds for the goldfinches, peanuts for the blue tits, and sunflower hearts for greenfinches, tree sparrows and blue tits, and fat bars for woodpeckers and robins. I also sprinkle mealworms into a dish for dunnocks and wrens.

At mid-morning it's time for the kestrel’s breakfast; three dead chicks tied to the branch just above the dining table, then at lunchtime another three and another three at teatime. As the kestrel approaches, my other, seeding eating, dinner guests flit into surrounding tree cover and wait until it has gone before daring to resume their meals.

Shortly before dusk I I cater for my nocturnal visitors, tying more chicks or mice to the same branches that the kestrel uses.

At the peak of the breeding season this year I was supporting a kestrel family and a tawny pair with seven chicks. I was putting out an average of 30 to 40 chicks a day.

Keep an eye out on my facebook pages Robert E Fuller to find out when The One Show is to show the story.