Lazarus.

There are problems with feeding the birds in our garden, not the least of which is the expense; we have loyalty cards for four of the local bird food emporia.

There's the cost of roofing and gutter repairs; we had a rather large bill last year and a room needs redecorating as mud and guano deposited in strategic places had caused an ingress of moisture.

And then there's the issue of bird strikes. The fake raptors stuck to the windows don't fool any bird and, with their acute visual powers, I'm not in the least surprised - so we've removed the stickers to give us a clearer view of the feeders. The sound of thud on glass gives rise to immediate response in the TD household; in the past we had to find the casualty before our canine companions did so, failure on this mission was not pleasant, though I don't think our present incumbent would do any more that give it a sniff out of curiosity.

This poor little cock-sparrow made a heck of a bang on impact and, when I found him on the ground, he was unconscious and gasping for breath. On picking him up and examining him, he appeared to have no broken bits so I did my usual of hiding him in the comparative safety of the kitchen window box to recover. Sometimes they make it - sometimes they don't, and an inspection after 30 minutes is usually sufficient to determine which; this chap was seen to fly up into a tree after 20; maybe not as steadily as he would normally manage but he made it and we wish him well.

About a year ago, a siskin wasn't so lucky; he was wearing a ring so we were able to report his demise to the relevant authority. A few weeks later we learned that he had been ringed 10 months earlier in Buckie, about 90 miles to the north (as the bird flies). Presumably, he had travelled south for the better winter weather. The feats accomplished by these little scraps of flesh never fail to amaze me and I do realise that this 90 miles is nothing in the world of birds.

Footnote: I once drove up a hill at 30 miles an hour behind a sparrow, I found the combination of speed and incline quite surprising.