Pigeon man

A young man who lives across the road spends most of his time on the roof of his mother's house. He keeps pigeons in a loft and lets them out to fly every evening. I enjoy watching them performing aerobatics as they go round and round in a large circle around his house. He is not the only pigeon fancier in the area which is a good thing as whenever you look at the sky you can see a flying bird a sight which I would miss because of the lack of wild birds in the Maltese sky.

I like it most when his birds fly low over ourhead. I often close my eyes to concentrate on the sound of their wings cutting the air. It is a beautiful sound that reminds of a much louder sound I once heard while visiting the Tour de Valat in France. One day we were taken to a spot to hear ducks flying overhead. When it was completely dark, we started to hear a sound like a strong wind in the distance. Within seconds the sound was right above us as thousands of ducks crossed from their feeding area to their roosting place. What a beautiful sound it was. It started like a distant hurricane and within seconds it reached full crescendo overhead. I do not know how long it lasted could have been seconds or it could have been minutes.

The sound of my neighbour's pigeons is not as loud as that of the ducks but during summer it provides a background sound during our roof-top dinners. I just hope that this young man does not decide to set up home in some other place as I would certainly miss his pigeons.