CARDIGAN’S lifeboat volunteers were called on to carry out an unusual rescue after a house martin's nest fell off the wall of the RNLI Station at Poppit Sands.

When crew members examined the damage they discovered that there were three chicks still alive in the nest after the fall.

One of the volunteer crew members had the idea to carefully pick up the nest with the chicks still in place and put it into his helmet.

The helmet was then attached back on the wall where the original nest had been in the hope that the parents would come back and continue to feed their chicks.

Thankfully, the parent birds didn't seem to mind the change in appearance of the nest and continue to feed the young chicks who don't appear to have suffered too badly from the fall and are almost ready to fly the nest for pastures new.