FOR ice cream man Mark Webb the term “serving hatch” took on a whole new meaning...when an expectant bird set up home inside his van’s engine!

While the chef, 53, was selling ice creams in a country park, he had no idea a nest of six little chicks had hatched under the bonnet of his Diamondice van.

The heart-warming story began when a pregnant wagtail decided the ice cream van would be the perfect place for her hatchlings to thrive.

So she settled in and made a nest while the vehicle was parked up for the winter near to Mark’s Shoebury home.

When Mark took the van out to Great Notley Park, near Braintree, last week for its first run of the year, the baby birds were being born inside.

Despite the engine running for four hours each day over the course of the week, the chicks happily hatched and are still cosying up inside the engine.

Mark, of Raphael Drive, Shoebury, who also runs the Drakes Bistro at Great Notley Country Park, won’t take the van out again until they have gone, but has been left thrilled by such a tweet discovery.

He said: “I was putting my stuff in the van and I noticed a baby wagtail hopping through the grill. I peered through and saw the baby chicks.

“I don't know how they survived as I had the engine running for four hours a day for four days. It has to be on to operate the ice cream machine.

“It would have been really hot in there, although there is a fan to cool the engine down. It’s remarkable the family survived.

“I haven’t taken the van out since I saw the chicks. I don’t want to disturb them.”

Alan Shearman, of the south Essex RSPB, was pretty impressed too.

He said: “I’ve not heard of a wagtail setting up a nest in an engine before, but sometimes birds do nest in unusual places, as long as they feel safe and warm, they are happy.

“Wagtails usually stay in a nest for two-and-a-half weeks before they leave.”

Mark added: “I’ll be sorry to see them go.”