Taking stock of wildlife

I live down a narrow, twisting cul-de-sac lane. You are forced to drive very slowly but this does give you the chance to take in the seasonal progression in the hedgerows and verges and the wildlife living in them. 

I was driving home yesterday, watching the territorial disputes of male blackbirds and the wood pigeons drinking from the puddles, when I did a double take. There was a very unusual pigeon beside one of the puddles.

It was slightly smaller and slimmer than a wood pigeon and had no white neck-ring. Instead a patch of metallic green shimmered in the sunlight on the side of its neck, with some salmon pink on the throat. This handsome bird was a stock dove.