Feed the Birds – tuppence a bag

Are you singing along in your head after just reading that title? Doesn’t it invoke wonderful visions of Julie Andrews with her perfectly coifed hair singing both mournfully and hopefully? And that sweet little old lady selling bread crumbs for delighted little children to sprinkle to the hungry little birds – isn’t that such a lovely picture?

Well, no, it is not!

Here in England people are OBSESSED with feeding the birds. Mostly pigeons, but also swans, ducks, herons (as mentioned in a previous post) and any other kind of creature possessed of wings. It is so VERY FAR removed from the precious little picture painted by the Mary Poppins song as to be diametrically opposed. There is nothing more disgusting than watching people (all manners of people – both British and tourists) throwing whole slices of processed white bread (what happened to the crumbs?) to hoards of pigeons.

Newsflash people- PIGEONS ARE VERMIN! That wasn’t my phrasing actually, we saw that written on signs along the waterfront of Richmond Upon Thames, where – guess what? – people were throwing bread to pigeons. And not only are pigeons vermin – but they also attract vermin. There is nothing a poor hungry rat likes better than some leftover pieces of over processed bread.

Does this state of affairs exist all throughout London? At every park? Now Hyde Park is really a wonderful park. It is grand on a truly royal scale - with lots of open green spaces, stately old trees, a monument to Princess Diana, and a big lake which you can row upon. Hyde Park borders the most fashionable parts of London; it is elegant and beautiful. A stroll there affords you photo-shots of nature such as this:

Am I really in the middle of a city?

Surely, at Hyde Park there is none of this tossing-of-whole-bread-slices to birds business.

Well, lo and behold – it is a blight on the landscape here as in any other park in London.

I originally took the above picture to show how every member of society – including those clothed in burkas – take part in this disgusting habit. However, recently I’ve noticed that more people of seeming Middle Eastern descent, and particularly women, tend to perpetuate this habit that is as unsightly to me as it is unhealthy for the poor birds. I don’t know what to make of this observation, except that perhaps, it is their signaling to the world that they are well-off? In a poor country to give food to a bird that you aren’t planning to eat would be seen either as folly or as a sign that you are so wealthy you can throw your money away. Or perhaps the burka-bound woman in my picture had a more primal desire to interact with things cute and feathered. I have often felt a kinship with wild animals – my cultural prejudice against the pigeon cannot prevent me from seeing how she could garner some inner calm from doing them what she thinks is a favor.

But really, can we just stop throwing bread to the pigeons people?