BIRD NEWS:551

I took one more shot in Littlehampton of a swan - another one coming down from up the river towards the ocean, in the opposing direction to the first. My next weekend took me to Worthing, where I was visiting someone in hospital. As I walked thru the park on my was back to the bus stop, I spotted a pigeon related info board.

On the first day of February, I was on my way to Arundel WWT for the morning and walking out from the tree-lined avenue onto the bridge over the stream, came out ready to cross the street to Swanbourne Lake as i was too early for the WWT and wanted to waste 5-10 minutes. I spotted a song thrush scurrying about just ahead of me.

I did not want to disturb it or put it off finding its breakfast, so slowly took out my 'lil pink box' and crept along following it, keeping its pace rather than my own previous hasty human pace.

We have not had a thrush in our garden this year. Most winters I see Plate-face or her offspring/siblings dashing out from under shrubs to grab a bug or suet pellet then disappear again. Alas this year, we have had too many 'other peoples' pe(s)ts' - cats. These pigeon-murdering furballs keep invading my yard and killing my friends.

Only days ago I heard a scuffle in the yard and threw open the window to deter 4 bully-black cats who had cornered a pigeon and were teasing it, pawing and plucking, releasing and recapturing... I dashed out the back door and they ran for it, leaving a stunned wood pigeon sitting staring at me in fear. The poor thing was petrified.

I waited til it was able to stand up, issuing Buddhist peace mantras, chasing away one black monster who had returned to the scene of the crime, probably to re-snatch their feast. When I approached after leaving it to settle for a while - in case it could not fly and needed to be housed somewhere safe overnight - it managed to fly away, thankfully.

I entered Swanbourne Lake - spotting a treefull of seagulls above the water birds below.