THE Fates have decreed that odd things will happen to me from time to time. Savour the following.

Walking to work along the riverbank this week, I observed a magpie chack-chacking in a tree near the towpath.

On drawing closer, I noticed he had his right foot triumphantly placed on what appeared to be a rodent of some kind.

As I came directly underneath, this handsome member of the crow family released his trophy in the manner of a Stuka divebomber dropping its payload. A large rat, bloody and quite dead, whizzed past my ear and hit the ground.

Later, I told my wife. What a shame, she said - you spoiled the magpie's breakfast.