It's a ritual I perform for, mostly, cockatoos. I do lose the occasional goldfish, and once in a while other birds such as galahs, and they are subject to the same burial ritual; here is a hole in the ground into which you are gently laid, then as the earth is placed over you I talk to you, recalling events from the time when our lives overlapped. Once this is done then marbles are placed on the grave.

It's all very simple, dignified, like a conversation with an old friend. Sometimes a tear is shed, sometimes not. Sometimes I will sing to them, sometimes not.

If a cockatoo dies in the garden then I leave it for half the day so that the other cockatoos can see that it is gone, and they can mourn it according to their custom. In the second half of the day the deceased becomes my responsibility, and is treated according to my custom; burial, and the brief ritual of the dead.

I take it as a great honour when the birds die in the garden - they have chosen not to be with their people, but to be with me, when the end came.

But by now I've probably said too much and you're shaking your head and saying "This guy really is weird...".