The gentleness of a city allotmenteer

Just leaving the allotments this morning, when my sister stopped in her tracks. A man was crouched by a wounded pigeon. It had been attacked by a magpie. As a crowd gathers around an accident, so a ring of pigeons surrounded the scene of the crime, seemingly watching, guarding. We strolled off. Some moments later, we were approached by same man with his bike. "Excuse me," he said, having heard us discuss this. "It's not a pigeon that's been wounded." He opened his bike bag to reveal two fledgling birds of prey nestled safely in the bag. Despite already sizeable beaks, their young bodies defenceless and bleeding. He thought they were buzzards. I know there are sparrow hawks in the allotments. We none of us were knowledgeable twitchers. They were en route to the experts.

It reminded me of our special responsibility to birdlife this summer. The winter hit them hard, garden birds need all the help we can offer them to keep numbers up. In allotments we have to balance nurturing our birdlife with protecting our plots from rats and other vermin. But just after I created my birdbath (see earlier post), I discovered this website which really does seem to have something for every one of our feathered friends: www.farbrookfarm.co.uk