There’s a kissing gate between the sections of a paddock at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park where passers-by frequently leave seeds on the tops of the wooden posts for small hungry birds. When avian flu appeared amongst the local birds, the park rangers put up signs asking people not to feed the birds so that their close association did not spread the flu, and mostly people have complied with these instructions.

The birds, of course, can’t read the signs and so they still lurk in the bushes near the regular feeding places, expecting seeds to appear when walkers pass through. This little Coal tit – historically, it would have been called a Coalmouse, according to my Fauna Britannica – was disappointed not to find a few seeds when I walked this way on a recent rainy day.