Stop the Pigeon

OK this is one of the oddest posts I've had the pleasure of writing.

Yesterday I was just sitting quietly getting on with work when I looked across and what should I see in the park but a man trying to catch a pigeon in a homemade trap. Armed with a plastic box, a stick and a box of bread crumbs he spent 45 long minutes unsuccessfully trying to entice them to enter his trap.

His technique was seriously flawed though, as he had forgotten a key component of the trap - a bit of string tied to the stick. He got plenty of pigeons going into the box but none of them knocked the stick causing the box to fall. All that happened was the pigeons happily tucked into the free breadcrumbs under a little shelter while our hunter stood about at the edges looking increasingly glum while the rain poured down upon his head. (We managed to capture the whole thing on film and might upload it here someday - it is quite fascinating.)

Why he was trying to catch pigeons - we have no idea. Maybe the credit crunch is hitting people even harder than I thought? Eventually, he just gave up, despite the pigeons showing more interest than ever before and he stormed over grabbed up his box and walked off.

Not sure why this makes it seem even weirder but he walked over and put all the equipment in the boot of a car and then drove off. That meant he had specifically driven there to carry out this odd behaviour.

At one point he did leave the trap completely and go around other areas of the park picking up other peoples bread, I guess in an attempt to make his trap more alluring. He also went to the shop to buy some juice. I was very tempted to run over the road and put a plastic pigeon that I happen to own inside the box to film his reaction but we chickened out.

If anyone has any clues as to what was going on then please let us know.