They’re not very good at this

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I have a little table under the grapevine where I can sit and look over the garden while I work. A few weeks ago I was getting showered with spent grape flowers but that only lasted a couple of days. Then a couple of days ago I went outside to find my table covered in twigs! At first I was a bit puzzled because they had obviously not fallen from the vine, they were a completely different kind of thing. Then I realised; a pair of pigeons were thinking of making a nest in the vine. Unfortunately for them they don’t seem to be very good at it! When I looked up I could just see a couple of precariously balanced twigs and a pigeon’s bottom! I swept up the twigs and left them on the patio in case they wanted to pick them up and try again. The same thing happened again yesterday, but nothing today. They seem to have decided that is not a suitable place. A pair of pigeons did nest there one year and even though they were only a few inches above my head it was surprisingly hard to spot them. They are also amazingly successful, given that their nests are so primitive. It’s hard to believe the eggs don’t fall out or the nests just disintegrate under the chicks but they seem to manage and over the past few decades their numbers have increased astronomically so they must be doing something right! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2026.