Enjoy a flight of fancy in your parish

A READER tells me a pair of racing pigeons, with rings, arrived at his farm four months ago, stayed around the yard and have now hatched two eggs, both parents sitting.

A single stray racing pigeon is not unusual but two, and of opposite genders at that, would seem to me like an elopement.

They are pretty birds, he says, but the squabs will, of course, look as hideous as only pigeon offspring can. Few wild bird offspring look attractive when hatched while farmyard “day-old chicks”, all golden and fluffy-feathered are positively “cute” as Americans might say.