Bird brain

6th February 2025

I’m getting on. The numerical evidence is the big birthday I celebrated in December. Other evidence? I’ve developed a morning routine at Pollards Mill. I call it ‘doing my rounds’. This begins with opening various doors to let the lovely breezes blow through the house and then moves on to the main event: checking on various water repositories. The pool may receive a little TLC with a light surface skimming and emptying the filter basket of leaves. I look in on the pool house to ensure our new pump is happy (and wish the toady residents a good morning). Finally I check on three home made water butts: plastic bins we’ve placed at the bottom of three drainpipes which stop well short of the patios and would otherwise spew rainwater everywhere. Exciting, huh?

Today I had a bit of a surprise:

I mean, WTF??!!! Bird bath? Bird brain, more like. Luckily there hadn’t been much rain or it might have drowned in deeper water. Any fellow avifauna enthusiasts might like to know that the bird is a scaly-naped pigeon, endemic to the West Indies. Quite striking (though this individual wasn’t looking its best) but not blessed with too much in the intelligence department. A month ago we had one lodging overnight in the house, stubbornly refusing to fly through the wide open doors until we finally pushed it out with a tarpaulin/broomstick combo after much huffing and puffing. It still owes us for a night’s accommodation on the ceiling fan. Who knows, today’s genius may have been the same bird. Another escape, rather damp but none the worse for its dunking.

What lies in wait for me on my rounds tomorrow, I wonder…