From time to time, we arrive home to find a visitor on our doorstep. Our visitor may have a headache, in which case, we’re fairly sure they’ve flown into the conservatory window, the severity of the headache being proportionate to the speed with which they hit the glass. Often, but not always, we’re able to nurse them back to health.

On a couple of occasions, our visitors seem to have arrived to elicit our help. A few years ago, a baby great spotted woodpecker turned up, apparently unable to fly. He seemed perfectly healthy otherwise, but left us with the mystery as to how he had arrived here. Despite placing him in a tree, he made no attempt to leave and in the end, I handed him to a bird sanctuary in Rochdale. In a couple of weeks, they reported that he was ok and had been released back into the wild.

Today’s visitor was a bit different. This little greenfinch was looking particularly sorry for herself when we found her on the doorstep and it didn’t take long to see why. A tick had attached itself to the bird’s head, just below the eye and she had lost some feathers where, maybe, another had been attached. This is the second time we have found a greenfinch with ticks. The last time, the bird was covered in them and despite the intervention of a vet, sadly, he died.

We removed the tick from this one and placed her in a box to see what happened. After about an hour, she removed herself from the box, preferring instead, the comfort of my wife’s sandal.

And the news is good. After a little explore around the kitchen, she’s now flown out of the door and has found her way into the garden, hopefully to fully recover.