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Monday, December 19, 2005

Bloomsbury

Walking along one of the sidestreets parallel to Gower Street I heard a harsh screeching from the narrow strip of grass, trees and bushes the other side of the road. It sounded like squirrels mating or a corvid warning call. I crossed the road and spotted 2 angry Jays sitting in a tree, along with a female blackbird and a tit. The Jays were furious, screeching at something on the ground and hopping from branch to branch. I couldn't see anything on the ground that might be angering them, so I hung around to see if they would do anything.

The Jays hopped around and screeched, and suddenly I saw a flash of white. A tabby with a white bib was sitting under a bush, totally camouflaged until it raised its head revealing its bib. The cat looked at me as if to say "I don't know what all the fuss is about", so I spoke to the cat for a bit while it continued to proclaim its innocence in the whole affair and the birds continued to screech noisily at it. After a few minutes the cat got up and slinked further into the bushes in an attempt to be forgotten.