Monday 22nd March 2021, 4.30pm (day 3,497)

A generally optimistic sheen to the day. Even the unused footbridge in the arse end of Victoria station has had a new coat of paint, and I suspect the pigeons know this somehow.
A generally optimistic sheen to the day. Even the unused footbridge in the arse end of Victoria station has had a new coat of paint, and I suspect the pigeons know this somehow.
This is not the first time that I have photographed evidence that the fake owls that stand on some of the buildings in Hebden Bridge fail to deter the pigeons in any way. But it is the first time I have caught one with a pigeon actually sat on its head. The humiliation is complete.
Correctly, it is owls that gather together in parliaments. But when do you ever see more than one owl together? The term seems to better fit these pigeons, sat on top of the Big Ben-style clock that graces what used to be a hotel in the centre of Hebden, now it’s apartments. Like all stopped clocks, it gives the right time twice a day.
If this fake owl sitting at the top of a building on Bridge Gate ever did deter the local pigeon troops from settling there, it’s long since stopped working. In fact, this photo was supposed to be of a whole bunch of them sat around and on it. But a second before I clicked the shutter, one of those intangible signals went through them all and off they flew, leaving me just with these last two in take-off mode. But I like it, as it makes it appear as if they have in fact decided to abort a landing — maybe, just maybe, because of the ‘owl’.
A veritable battalion of pigeons, in tidy military formation (well, most of them), line up on the roof of the White Swan for the next instalment in the ongoing pigeon/duck war. Recent infiltrations must have provided promising intelligence. The person in the hat walks over the bridge all indifferent, but I have been observing.
“You know, Pamela, there’s nothing like a nice cool bath to smooth out the ruffles after a hard day’s scavenging.”
“Ooooo, I know, duck. Let me just….. ahhh, that’s better.”
“Love the eye-shadow too. Grey’s your colour.”
Back into Manchester for work-related reasons for the first time since 18th December. The Christmas holidays are over for us all. These pigeons ponder the possibility of a dip in the fountains of Piccadilly Gardens, but understandably refuse — it was a chilly day, winter has its bite back to some extent.
I’m aware this photo could have been taken anywhere, but it happens to be in Zagreb, Croatia: making this the first place to begin with Z that has appeared on the blog in its 2,454 days.
The pigeons of Zagreb, at least, the ones pictured here, may have decided for many reasons to have a fight but amongst those may have been the fact that on this late morning it was absolutely throwing it down with rain, as is visible here (and it’s not always easy to see rain on photographs unless it’s very heavy). I have been here 24 hours now and there’s certainly been copious amounts of moisture pouring out of the sky. I think there are three birds visible on this shot, but I must admit I’m not entirely sure.
And so, after two days of photographing monuments — and, y’know, doing a bit of work — I head home again. My colleague and I were wondering how these pigeons got into the Sheremetyevo airport buildings, but maybe they don’t even bother leaving; I should imagine there is more than enough here to feed and shelter them, rather like that Tom Hanks character in The Terminal. Warmer than a Moscow winter, anyway.