Lunchtime lifesaving drama! →[More:]I was on my daily walk today with a colleague, round Millwall Dock, which is huge and very deep. As we walked along the path, there was a little fledgling blackbird on the walkway, tail feathers not yet grown, literally finding his wings, learning to fly.

We startled him, and he flew up onto the post-and-chain fence next to the water, and, confused, he flew from there right into the water!

Oh noes!

He sort of floated there, then made his way across to the wall, but there was no way he could get out. A couple of mallards circled nearby (I have no idea if they'd eat a bird, but I didn't like the look of them.)

I said to my friend "we can't leave him" and I took off my coat. I think he thought I was going to leap into the water, but I lay on the ground and under the chain and tried to reach the little bird. But, being almost a dwarf, my arms wouldn't reach anywhere near.

So, sighing, my friend handed me his specs and stretched his 6ft 2in frame out over the edge of the dock. He could reach the bird but it was so scared it tried to get away, and we were worried it'd drift out of reach.

Then I had an idea - to gently put one of the lifebuoys into the water in the hope that the bird could get on it, dry itself out and fly off.

But just as my friend was getting the lifebuoy down, a man came along carrying an umbrella. I asked him if we could borrow it and showed him the bird. He then joined the 'save the bird' posse, and had the good suggestion to open the umbrella, put it under the bird and lift it up out of the water.

After two or three tries, it worked and I was able to lift the terrified little creature out of the umbrella and put him as far out of harm's way as I could carry him without doing him any damage (wild birds can easily die of shock from human handling).

I think he'll be ok. He was just really, really frightened.

So, a tick in the credit column in my karma account, I hope.

And, of course, when we got back to the office, we had to virtually re-enact the whole scenario for everyone, with added drama. Heh.