It's elephant time for our cherry tree. Ripe fruit glistens among dark green leaves. A flock of starlings - some black, glossy and speckled, some buff-brown juveniles - land and scramble, mostly unseen, among the leaves which rustle and move with their comings and goings. They peck at the fruit. A pair of wood pigeons - soft grey backs, pink-buff breasts, white collars - land and cling unsteadily to twigs too fragile for their weight. They almost fall as they reach for cherries which they swallow whole. It is late on a warm afternoon. We watch the birds.

LRB 6 July 2006 | PDF Download