Imagine climbing a ladder so that you are resting against the gable end of a two-storey house a cool 4m above the ground, but a full 10m above the level of the road on which the house stands.

In one arm you’re carrying a nine-pair swift nest-box that’s over a metre across and weighs about 10 kg.

Then you have to place a backing panel against the wall, drill the securing holes to fix that with your handheld electric drill, hold the screws in place and tighten the whole structure home.

It is the sort of technical, practical task I would struggle to achieve while standing on terra firma. And not before a lot of swearing.

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Lester Hartmann is the sort of friend who does these things in his sleep.

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I think of him as one of those Hindu deities, Vishnu perhaps, with more limbs than the average mortal.

On another occasion I had him 6m up our extension ladders against a big sycamore near the house while doing much the same trick with a 70x50x40 cm double-storey owl box.

In fact most of my pictures of Lester are from behind and at angle of c65 degrees while he is balanced on a ladder step 50mm across.

But then he is my go-to man for all things bird box.

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Lester is the founder of Peak Boxes which has expanded its production and delivery almost exponentially in the last few years.

Based near his home village of Hathersage, Derbyshire, he has just assembled a state-of-the-art workshop to a design of his own making out of the wonder product that he uses in the bird houses, a enormously long lasting ply.

Lester’s speciality is swift boxes.

It is how I got to meet him, courtesy of a fabulous scheme to boost the bird’s fortunes Buxton-wide, which is overseen by a friend Simon Fussell and financed by Simon’s employers the Buxton Civic Association.

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Read the full article on Mark Cocker’s Website.