Street Creatures

A playful poisson pops out to say hello to passersby at an Antwerp, Belgium, art festival (Photo by Cheetah_flicks, cc by-nc-nd 2.0).

Pigeons are the urban birds seemingly everyone loves to hate… but I have to wonder if all that animosity is actually just envy disguised as distain.

Because, by any measure you care to choose, pigeons are the Olympic champions of adaptation… of turning a challenging sequence of events into an opportunity that benefits the individual AND the entire species… of figuring out how to exploit your tormentor.

If that’s piqued your interest, check out award-winning natural journalist David Quammen’s essay titled “Superdove on 46th Street,” which you can find in his book Wild Thoughts from Wild Places. (Photo by Matt Perich, ccl by 2.0).

… but, that said, in all the years I’ve observed and even worked hands-on with owls, I’ve never seen one of these über-serious raptors crack a smile, or even a smirk. They truly have no sense of HOOO-mor lol (Photo by Loco Steve, ccl by-sa 2.0).