So there was Ossie, vacantly staring out of the kitchen window last week, when he noticed in the distance some council workmen erecting a pole at the entrance to the little country park we live near.
An hour later we had to go into town, so being an inverterate nosybeak of this parish, Ossie detoured to see what the pole was about, as had one or two other locals.
"It's a flagpole" said one. "How do you know?" enquired the Ostrich. "There's a flag hanging from it!" "Ah!"
Nevertheless, the bird was unconvinced. "It's a CCTV camera cunningly disguised as a flagpole - trust me on this!" Birmingham City Council had many ingenious ways of disguising their CCTV cameras, (largely in mainly unsuccessful attempts to fool the local Muslim population), and indeed, this 'flagpole' has a shiny knob on top, which Ossie stared at, long and hard, to see if he could identify a lens. Not entirely sure ....
But nevertheless, there was a flag hanging down inert, and the bird managed to reach up and pull it outwards so we could read it ...."Green Flag Award 2016/17" or similar - whatever that meant ....
Two hours later on the way back home - and the flag had gone! Leaving just a pole. With a knob on top! Had someone nicked the flag?
So is it CCTV or is it a flagpole - an unsolved mystery!