I BELIEVE that the Government advice on frequently washing one’s hands during the pandemic has somehow been picked up by the bird population.

For once a week a female blackbird takes a bath in a large drinking bowl placed near our feeding stations. She sits in the bowl and then jumps up and down for some 40 to 50 times immersing herself each time in a shower of water as she vigorously flaps her wings. After she has shaken herself dry and flown off I have to replace the water each time as I would hate to think of her friends drinking her bathwater.

Ron Kirby

Dorchester