Friday 18 June 2004

Woodpigeon Resurrection?

I'm cautiously optimistic. The garden was visited by a fat woodpigeon today. I realise that one woodpigeon looks much like another, but as he flew off, I'm sure I spotted a raggedness in his tail. Looking under the bush again, the feathers there seem mainly to be tail feathers. I've seen collared doves escape with only the loss of some tail feathers.

Maybe....

To wish him well, whoever he is, here's a poem I wrote at a time when I did such things:

WOODPIGEON

Plump and round, pearly grey,
Circling in,
White flashes on his wings
Signal his approach.
Undercarriage down,
But still a bumpy, heavy landing
Several feet from the grain.
Almost bewildered, looking round,
Why am I here?
Then sees the seed
And waddles to it, slow and indirect.
Staccato pecking,
Neck spots up and down.

(26 May 1995)


And I picked and ate my first raspberry of the year today. Sometimes life's not too bad at all, huh?

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