Pigeons, Wagtail, Osprey

And an apology

A Day At The Cricket With The Birds

The Oval, south London. Home of Surrey County Cricket Club – and, as some (dyed-in-the-wool Surrey fans, naturally) would have it, the ‘proper’ home of cricket. For me, it’s the first available cricket-watching day of the season, and—

– What’s this?

What’s what?

– Cricket talk?

Well, just a—

– Look, pal. I signed up to this thing on the understanding that you would write about birds. So get to it, ok? None of this cricketing drivel.

I, as the saying goes these days, hear ya. But the cricketiness is all in a good cause. We have to set the scene. And the scene, as I was trying to get across before I was so belligerently interrupted, is the aforementioned Oval, a cricket ground in south London. An expanse of grass, the low—

– Hmph.

The low hum of a good-natured Saturday crowd—

– HMPH.

And five pigeons, scrabbling around on the outfield.

– Now you’re talking.

The Oval pigeons are famous. Give a cricket commentator a pigeon and they’re ecstatic. Throw in a bus going down the Harleyford (or Garboldisham, as the case may be) Road, and their joy is unfettered. Because while cricket is a fascinating sport, the greatest of them all—

— WHAT

Shush. The greatest, as I say, of them all – there is no doubt that the action, in the general course of a four- or even five-day match, allows the observer scope for pursuing other interests. And if your other interests are birds, a cricket ground can yield, if not copious pleasures, at least flashes of interest here and there. At some – Hove, for example – it might be gulls. At The Oval, it’s pigeons.

Cricket is a game rich with statistics. The latest analysts use a wide variety of graphs, charts, pitch maps and so forth to pull apart the finer points of the game. It’s only right and proper that any attempt at an ornithological analysis should follow suit.

PIGEON DISTRIBUTION

11.13 am

1.58 pm

4.27 pm

6.06 pm

Of the nearly 50 pigeons populating the ground at the day’s peak, my eye was caught by two in particular.

PIGEON 1, notable for its puffed up neck feathers and determination to pursue PIGEON 2, notable for its scurrying gait and apparent disinclination to have anything at all to do with PIGEON 1, least of all to engage in what was so clearly on PIGEON 1’s mind.

Other bird action through the day included a distant singing wren and a total of four gulls floating over at various heights. But the stars of the day were the pied wagtails.

Wonderful birds, pied wagtails. The name gives you some clues as to their appearance and behaviour.

And they love a cricket ground. The field guides, informative in so many ways, neglect to list the four prime pied wagtail sighting hotspots:

1. Motorway service station car parks

2. Cricket grounds

3. Station platforms

4. High street pavements outside Greggs

I could write several paragraphs describing the rich variety of pied wagtail entertainment on offer at The Oval last Saturday, but again, a graph will suffice.

PIED WAGTAIL 1 was clearly a connoisseur, its first appearance coinciding with the first bowling spell of wunderkind Shoaib Bashir.

Finally, peregrines. On a good day at The Oval, you might see a peregrine. Saturday was not one of those days.

– So that’s the birds. What happened in the cricket?

Don’t know. Sorry. Was too busy watching the birds. Who do you think I am, Neville Cardus?

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Calvin & Hobbes

It’s migration season. It shouldn’t be a competition, but it’s only natural to look at other people’s FOY (First Of Year) sightings with the lightest flush of envy.

Either Bill Watterson is a birder, or he knows them.

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Jump! Jump!

This video of Emperor Penguin chicks jumping into the water from a height of fifty metres is quite remarkable.

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Apologies of Varying Strength

The observant among you will have noticed that I failed to post about birds last week. I apologise. (If you didn’t notice, then I still apologise, but with slightly less intensity.)

I do have an excuse, though. I was fully engaged in recording the audiobook of Taking Flight. This was an entirely enjoyable endeavour, and one from which I emerged with a renewed respect for anyone who spends any time in the vicinity of microphones.

The highlight of the three days was when I successfully negotiated the word ‘Yinpterochiropterans’, only to stumble, three seconds later, on the word ‘bats’.

The audiobook will appear on 16th May, at the same time as the paperback edition (non-UK readers – that link should be the best way for you to buy it, as Blackwells ship worldwide). It would please me greatly if you felt able to spread the word by whatever medium you choose. Getting your book noticed seems to be harder than ever (unless you’re a former Prime Minister, obviously), so every little bit of help is enormously appreciated.

Thanks, as always, for reading. That might be enough birdy content for you, but if it isn’t, below the fold I write a bit about ospreys, including an exclusive-ish extract from Taking Flight on them.

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