A Darlington man who saved a distressed woodcock more than ten years ago was unable to repeat his success this weekend.

Raymond Vincent was working at Darlington Memorial Hospital in 1987 when he rescued a woodcock which had strayed into the basement.

The rare bird was spotted by Mr Vincent and a colleague, who released it in a nearby field in an incident reported by The Northern Echo.

Mr Vincent is now the building services manager at Northgate House in Darlington, and on Saturday he had another encounter with a woodcock.

He said: "We heard this big bang and what happened was this woodcock just smashed into a window on the foyer entrance.

"I knew it was a woodcock because of what happened before, but this time it broke its neck and died.

"They're usually only found on moorland and dense woodland, so it's quite a coincidence that it's happened to me again."