Who would want to saunter along hot pavements, in heavy feathers? Not these birds. These are City pigeons – they make plans, and they know places.

This last, humid week I came across two pigeon pool parties. The group photographed above were enjoying the relative cool of Postman’s Park, while just across the road, there was a more lofty party in the top tier of the fountain in the courtyard of St Bartholomew’s Hospital. There was much splashing and shaking of tail feathers.

I hope they enjoyed themselves, because there are peregrine falcons about, some thirty pairs of them in London. The closest pair to these pigeons was probably the pair who enjoy the view from the Tate Modern. If either of those deadly birds was in the skies above, I think it could have taken its pick from this party. The pigeons would not have stood a chance, not against a bolt from the blue with a diving speed of around two hundred miles per hour … way too fast for even the most athletic of these splashers to have grabbed their towels and flapped for cover.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023