I’ve been wondering where the birds at the café have all gone. The starling will have flown north but what about the wagtail, the crows, even the pigeons? Only a few seagulls remain (nothing is going to put them off, they own the beach). Is it because all the others had flown inland for the breeding period, maybe to find trees to build nests in? Is it because there are too many tourists around? After all, it’s the Easter school holidays still, the weather has been uncharacteristically good, and I too am finding it a bit of a shock seeing so many people around suddenly. Or…

There’s a new guy at the café. His seems to be a bit of a lowly job: collect plates, wipe the tables, do a bit of sweeping up, but all of these tasks he undertakes with creditable gusto. However, it seems he’s also decided the area needs to be a bird-free zone and he now patrols the café with a long-handled brush, swinging it wildly like a polo mallet while charging any hopeful avian that chooses to land anywhere near a plate (or anywhere else for that matter). Given there are a lot of tables and, because of the Easter break most of them are full, there is, therefore, a lot of rushing around going on.

I can understand this is done for the benefit of the customers. It’s not easy eating a plate of chips when your table is covered in pigeons, and they are pretty persistent (though its much more fun watching someone else grappling with the same problem, especially when they make the mistake of throwing a few scraps in the mistaken hope that it might appease these winged vacuum cleaners) but somehow the place isn’t the same without the birds. My only consolation is that, as far as having something to watch while drinking my tea, the spectacle of a maniac lunging at anything with feathers does seem to pass the time.