05.55 - Thud... thud... double thud.... The bedroom window trembled.

"Wifey" ...thud

Hubby more urgently, "Wifey"

I'm nearest - I get up and go to the opposite end of the window from where the signals came. Gingerly shifting the corner of the curtain, eyes screwed up against the bright light of day, I peer out.

Nothing there to be seen apart from a speck of earth.

I pad up the hallway in bare feet, to look out of a window of another room; nothing there to be seen.

Hubby close behind, spots something from a window on the other side of the house.

Sitting on the sill, brazenly peering in, eyes wide open, is a very large herring gull. In case you haven't seen one, herring gulls are really big birds.

The big bird taps its beak against the window. It decides we are idiots and drops down onto the grass, constantly looking at us and demonstrates it is looking for food.

We go back to bed and sleep till a reasonable hour.