A bird in the hand
The gardener arrived early to his work one sunny morning bearing runner beans for a favourite customer and quite unaware that within moments he would be called upon to save a life. Rascally squirrels had managed to remove the top of a tall, enclosed peanut feeder - designed to keep them out- tipped out most of the nuts and made off with their bounty. On arriving for his early morning peanuts, the jay, finding only a few nuts left, stuck his head into the plastic tube, wriggled and squirmed his way to the bottom and very soon found himself stuck fast, upside down and swinging helplessly in the rapidly rising heat of the day. The ingenuity of the gardener is often called upon and this was all in a day's work but more than a little daunting. All there was to pull on were the tips of...