Fire Rescue Service

I had a most unexpected visitor yesterday evening.  I heard a strange noise coming from the sitting room and when I went to investigate it was coming from the wood-burning stove, which fortunately wasn't lit.  And this is what I saw.

The tree sparrow must have fallen down the chimney and ended up in the stove.  It was flapping around in the ashes but I managed to catch it as I didn't want an ash-covered sparrow flying around the house.

Of course it had then to have its photo taken.

It was cold and dark outside and I wasn't sure how long the sparrow had been in the stove.  It looked pretty groggy to start with and I wondered if it was starved and/or dehydrated.  In the daytime I would just have released but I put it in a transparent box with food and water.  I left it in peace but I can't tell whether it took any food or water.  I reasoned that it would be safer in the box overnight and it seemed none the worse for its adventure as I released it this morning. Perhaps we should call it Passer cineraria, the ashy sparrow.