Tuning into the pigeons’ wavelength

Hell’s teeth but I’ve listened to a lot of Woman’s Hour during the past six weeks. While it was jolly interesting and often illuminating, I’d have preferred to tune into something on, say, giant squid or fortitude in an Anglo-Saxon shield wall. But the dear old Jimny’s radio is permanently set to Radio 4, which means plenty of female insights on my 10am runs to try to find the beastly pigeons.

There’s been a dearth locally for much of the year, hardly surprising since we’d emptied their larder. Many farmers have given up growing oilseed rape after neonicotinoid pesticides were banned, exposing the crop to the ceaseless chomping of the cabbage stem flea beetle.

The game crops were