Clearing out the area behind the fireplace of his country home, homeowber David Martin wasn't too shocked to uncover the foliage and twigs used for nesting by generations of birds.
But then, something else appeared.
"As we pulled them out, bits of bird came out with it the breast bone first, then the head and the leg with an aluminium ring round it, obviously a racing pigeon," he says.
In fact, it was a carrier pigeon - experts say it fell down the chimney during the Second World War, perhaps overcome with fumes after it stopped for a rest. And contained within the canister attached to its leg was a tiny message.
"After we took the spool off there was a cigarette paper with coded writing on it", Mr Martin told Reuters.
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His home is in Surrey, close to the hotel where Britain's General Montgomery planned the D-Day invasion of France.
Different theories say the bird could have been headed there from Normandy, or perhaps to the headquarters of Bomber Command, sent by a special operative in occupied Europe to call in an air raid.
Because the message was coded - by no means the treatment for all military messages - there's excitement at the secrets it holds.
One theory suggests it was heading to deciphering headquarters at Bletchley Park.
Perhaps 70 years on, the message, carried by this valiant but unlucky bird, is now finally in their hands.
