Animal lovers, look away.

Two sad animal stories from my little village. Friday's sudden and strong winds caused the death of this poor oystercatcher, as it tried to clear the bridge into the teeth of the tempest. Hit by a car, beak broken but thankfully dead, the bird lay on the road bridge for sometime before being retrieved by a young man named Hemi, who was visiting Riverton with his mother, both down from the Waikato. As we carried the bird to a less public place to lay him down, we spotted this snail, making its way across the footpath, horns extended. I said to Hemi, "I'll just get my camera from inside, and take a photo of the poor bird, and the brave little snail, for my blog."
When I returned half a minute later, the wee thing had been stood upon, by some passing shopper.
So here they are, the bird and the mollusc, poor things.