Catch your pigeon

“It can pay to let a fleeing pigeon go a bit further”

One of my earliest memories of secondary school was, aged 10, sitting tense and nervous in a physics lesson with a rather formidable female teacher who declared that “we walk around under an ocean of air”.

The lesson was about atmospheric pressure, and while I’ve forgotten the lady’s name, I do recall what she said clearly. To an extent, what happens on dry land also happens under the sea, and it is just the creatures there that have evolved differently to cope with their denser ‘atmosphere’.

Now, if you are a sea angler, you may know that on neap tides the fish may disperse, but on spring tides when the currents are powerful, it can concentrate the fish in certain areas, either to feed or to find shelter from the strong currents. I can’t help feeling this logic applies to woodpigeons. In times of still, calm weather, the birds can scatter and be hard to get to grips with. But in strong winds, just like the fish