My first job every morning is to put the bird food out onto the feeder. I do this even before I have my own breakfast. It’s a fairly short and well ordered routine that takes me a couple of minutes.

We have a small room attached to the end of the kitchen, which is accessed only from outside. It houses the wahing machine, a sink and the central heating boiler, so we call it the boiler house. I have my bird food laid out in jars and with two trips round the front to the bird feeder the job is finished.

At about 10.30am today I decided to ‘top up’ the bird nuts and Dulcie our cat decided to come with me. She made a bee-line for the boiler house door which was closed, something she’s never done before. As I walked passed the window I could see why. There was a starling shut in there trying desparately to get out by throwing itself against the window.

My first instinct was to open the door. Big mistake. Dulcie was in there like a shot. She might be 15 years old and disabled, but she knows a captive audience when she sees one. As luck would have it the starling had enough sense to stop flying aimlessly, and settled on a pile of old towels in a corner, way out of Dulcie’s reach. It sat there patiently whilst I got her inside, it even stayed there whilst I went in and opened the window.

Now with door and window open, and Dulcie safely indoors, it would have a chance to escape, and it did. I have no idea how it got in there, I’m just glad it got out.

Staying on the bird theme, the gang of long-tailed tits have become regular visitors over the last few weeks. They are cute little fellows. I caught one the other day trying some cooked, mashed potato .