Tuesday 15th January (Bird-watching in the Dining Room)

On this cold frosty winters morning Mr. Kite walked into town listening to robins, blackbirds and wood pigeons. On the trees the buds were preparing for the spring and new green shoots were peering out the ground.

Walking back over the river Mr. Kite stopped to watch cormorants and black-headed gulls. Mr. Kite opened the front door and went into the dining room where a feral pigeon was sitting on the taable waiting to be fed. This plucky little bird had come down the chimney rather like Father Christmas should.

This bird was not making too much noise but did flutter a little and did not move as he expected to be fed. Mrs. Kite decided that the bird could not stay for tea so he had to be caught and put out to fend for himself.  Feral pigeons are not fed inside this house. So the door was closed and the pigeon then had a little fly around onto the book shelves, the piano and the mantel-piece.

Mr. Kite tried to catch the bird but it was not playing that game but would rather be pursued. So from the piano to the mantel-piece and to the book shelves the bird went from one to the other just in front of the ageing Mr. Kite. Eventually the feral pigeon was caught and released into the garden where it flew up and then landed on the house roof.

So the dining room list for the year so far is one: a feral pigeon.