Country diary: where sparrows go when they vanish at dusk

Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: Trying to find enough shelter to keep warm and conserve energy without increasing the risk of attack is a juggling act for a small bird

The torchlight cut through the dark, searching the canopy of a tall cedar as it swayed in the last gusts of the storm. A splash of white 15 metres up caught my attention: bird droppings, bright against the dark bark. Just above it, a wood pigeon was resting cosily against a jackdaw. A cock pheasant turned its head to observe me, that russet and red enhanced by the torch beam.