Guests take a break in our gardens

SOMETIMES odd birds turn up in people’s gardens.

One of the oddest examples is the reader in west Cork who tells me that, from time to time, a hen harrier sweeps over her garden wall and makes off with one of the collared doves at her feeding station.

The name ‘hen harrier’ suggests that at one time this handsome bird of prey may have been a scourge of domestic poultry. But nowadays they are so rare, so timid and so restricted to wilderness areas that this could win the prize for most unlikely garden bird.