Swallowing pigeons in the park

London has some fantastic parks. Hyde Park, Regents Park...but my favourite is St James Park.
It so happened that I often walked through there on my way to meetings at a previous job - so had a chance to see the park at regular intervals over the changing seasons.

One cool thing about St James Park is the concentration of exotic birds hanging around on its central lake. I'm no bird watcher, so I can't really tell you what they are beyond "pretty ducks" - but I do recognise the pelicans. There are several pelicans that live in the park and they are all pretty well accustomed to humans. I once saw a pelican take a shine to a family and begin walking in step with them down the wide paths around the lake. It looked like a scene out of ET - three humans and an alien just ambling along.

Unfortunately, the park also has quite a concentration of some more common birds - pigeons. And if you go to feed the pretty birds in the park, you'll have to aim carefully to keep from being overrun by pigeons.

That little problem may be taking care of itself, though. Yesterday a pelican ate one of the pigeons. Just walked up to it and scooped it up in its beak. Pigeon is a slow lunch apparently, it took about 20 minutes to swallow the bird down - flapping all the way.