The Reverend David Wheeler’s comment on the unusual bird he saw in the Byes has prompted me to reply (“Did you see bird?”, Opinion, January 17).

Towards the end of last summer we had a visitor in our back garden in Higher Brook Meadow. It hopped across the grass like a woodpecker, the body and sharp, straight beak the same as a green woodpecker.

However, it was a similar size to a shag and dark brown/black all over. Could it have been a juvenile gannet? No white chest or yellow beak as the bird the reverend saw.

Lucy Wheeler

Sidford