ST ALBANS: It was no fag for a family of blue tits at Westminster Lodge finding a place to nest and rear their young.

But the Company of Ten feared that smokers in their audiences might give them the bird when they found they could not use the ashtray outside the Abbey Theatre

For the blue tits decided to take up residence in the ashtray a few weeks ago and are still flying in and out, putting it out of bounds to smokers.

A sign, with the accompanying comment “poor things”, has gone up warning smokers not to use the ashtray because a family of blue tits have taken up residence inside.

But Paul Davidson, chairman of the Abbey Theatre Trust, said he understood that blue tits had no sense of smell which was why they seemed happy to nest among cigarette butts and tobacco.

The family are flying between a tree outside the Abbey Theatre and the ashtray.