AS a scientist (of sorts) I know that one golden rule is to never anthropomorphise any animal - pets excluded. Thank goodness, as my house rabbit Nigel has a rather huffy character and very strong preferences when it comes to music.

It is frowned upon to give wild animal's names, life stories and individuality. I do this absolutely all the time. I cannot help it. I was never much of scientist and sentimentality will always win over rationality with me.

However, I bet I am not alone. I wonder just how many of us have names for the birds that come to our feeders, the hedgehog that visits our garden at night, or even the robin that accompanies us while we work away in our gardens.

I remember as a child "rescuing" a blackbird and coming up with the ever so unique name of "Blackie".

"I am not sure if the poor bird needed rescuing but I managed to pick it up and so it became my patient. When Blackie sadly died a couple of days later I was absolutely distraught, the feeling of loss probably made even worse by the fact I had named the bird.

Then there was the first Great Spotted Woodpecker I ever saw when I was working at Bowhill (not a rare species I know but I have never been very good at spotting birds) whom I named Homer for reasons I cannot for the life of me remember.

Luckily, Homer seemed to fare better than Blackie as I am almost certain he returned the following year to feed from the same window. It could have been a different bird but as soon as I saw him again I felt certain it was Homer.

I recently had the dilemma of trying to name the pair of sparrows that have finally, if somewhat hesitantly, started to come to the feeder attached to the window in my boyfriend's flat.

In his previous house in the countryside we had a plethora of birds to name including Baldy the bald chaffinch and Jose the fajita loving, Spanish influenced Robin.

The job of naming the two sparrows in the new flat fell to me as I apparently have a knack for names. Those of you with a keen memory will remember that earlier in this article I revealed that I have a rabbit called Nigel so my choice of animal names may be open to refute.

My imagination is definitely slipping as I age as I could not think of anything fitting and hastily named the male sparrow Jason - after my favourite contestant from the Apprentice whom had just been "fired" that night.

But I could not think of a name for the female. What is a good name for a small, female, noisy bird? I will let you know if I ever come up with one, but it is difficult.

These birds are part of our daily lives. We hear them when we wake up in the morning, we eat breakfast with them, and when we get home from work we moan at the mess streaked down the window and the seed clogging up the gutters!

They are an integral part of our lives so why shouldn't we give them names! It doesn't do them any harm, it only makes things harder for us when nature takes it course, but that is our burden to bear.

Do get in touch with any names you have given to your garden birds or local wildlife!

Rachel McAleese KLAWED Project Officer Kailzie www.kailziewildlife.org