At lunchtime yesterday I was sitting watching a racous Magpie in my front garden, when a largish brown creature landed on the garden wall. The Magpie flew up, no doubt like me thinking that a cat had arrived.

I was only three feet away from the creature, seperated from it by the glass of the window. Oh my, I thought, it;s a pheasant. And it was. I watched it fly down into my garden, potter around having a peck here and there, and then fly off to my neighbour's garden.

In my forty five years living in Fishersgate I have never known a female pheasant to pay us a visit before.